Rate My Professor Samantha Lee

Dr. Samantha Lee is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the UWA Medical School's Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Science and a Senior Research Fellow in the Genetics and Epidemiology Group at the Lions Eye Institute. She completed her PhD in Optometry and Vision Science at the Queensland University of Technology in 2016, with a focus on eye movements and driving-related performance of older drivers with visual impairment. Previously, she earned a BSc (Hons) in Optometry from the University of Manchester in 2011. Her career history encompasses several key roles, including Senior Lecturer and Research Coordinator (0.4 FTE) in the Division of Optometry, School of Allied Health, at the University of Western Australia from September 2020 to June 2021; Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Lions Eye Institute from May 2017 to October 2023; and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Science, University of Western Australia, from June 2017 to November 2023. Earlier, she served as a Research Optometrist at the Singapore Eye Research Institute from April 2011 to July 2013.

Dr. Lee's research specializations lie in ophthalmic genetics and epidemiology, with key interests in glaucoma, myopia, optic disc parameters, choroid, genetic epidemiology, statistical genetics, and epidemiology. She has authored over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, including 'Association of Polygenic Scores for Glaucoma With Measures of Retinal Ganglion Cell Integrity in Young and Older Adults' (2026), 'Exploring the Effects of Age at Menarche and Pregnancy on Myopia' (2026), 'Advances in the genetics of refractive errors: Contributions from the CREAM consortium' (2025), 'Clinical Nomogram for Determining Expected Choroidal Thickness in Children With Myopia' (2025), and 'Genome-wide association studies, Polygenic Risk Scores and Mendelian randomisation: an overview of common genetic epidemiology methods for ophthalmic clinicians' (2025). Her publications have garnered over 1,475 citations. Notable awards include Highly Commended Early Career Researcher (2024), Runner-up Kathleen Holmes Scholarship Prize (2022), Strachan Memorial Prize (2020), Outstanding Oral Presentation (2020), and UWA Research Collaboration Award (2020). She holds editorial positions on the boards of BMC Ophthalmology (since July 2022) and Scientific Reports (since July 2023), and serves on the Research Advisory Committee of Australia Vision Research (since June 2022) and the Member-in-Training Committee of the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology (May 2022 to May 2025).