Rate My Professor Simon Backhouse

Simon Backhouse is an Associate Professor in Vision Science in the School of Medicine within the Faculty of Health at Deakin University, where he also serves as Optometry Course Director. He earned a Bachelor of Optometry, a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Auckland (2004-2009), and a Graduate Certificate of Higher Education from Deakin University. His academic career includes prior affiliation with the Department of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of Auckland and progression to his current senior role at Deakin.

Backhouse's research specializations encompass myopia development and control, scleral remodelling, choroidal responses to retinal defocus, peripheral refraction, environmental factors influencing myopia, paediatric dry eye disease, and optometry education. Notable publications include 'Effect of retinal image defocus on the thickness of the human choroid' (Chiang et al., 2015), 'Peripheral refraction in myopia corrected with spectacles versus contact lenses' (Backhouse et al., 2012), 'Scleral remodelling in myopia and its manipulation: a review of recent advances in scleral strengthening and myopia control' (Backhouse and Gentle, 2018), 'Prevalence of myopia among urban and suburban school children in Tamil Nadu, South India' (Gopalakrishnan et al., 2022), and 'Is This Mine to Keep? Three-dimensional Printing Enables Active, Personalised Learning in Anatomy' (Backhouse et al., 2019). His scholarly output has accumulated 795 citations, with an h-index of 14 and i10-index of 19. Backhouse contributes to teaching and supervision, including PhD students, and leads educational initiatives such as professional development in assessment practices and reflective inventories for diagnostic reasoning in optometry. He engages in international collaborations, including cotutelle PhD programs with Aston University on paediatric dry eye disease.