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RCOphth awards Honorary Fellowships to Usha Chakravarthy and Carrie MacEwen

13 September 2019

At the RCOphth’s annual Admission Ceremony on Friday 6 September 2019 the College awarded two Honorary Fellowships to Professor Usha Chakravarthy and Professor Carrie MacEwen. The award of Honorary Fellow is the highest accolade the College can bestow. It recognises significant and life-long contributions by individuals to advancement in the field of ophthalmology.

The Admission Ceremony, held at Friends House in London, confers the Fellowship of The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (FRCOphth) on those who have completed their fellowship examinations and welcomes new fellows and diplomates to the College. Each year at the ceremony, the College awards Honorary Fellowships to those whose work has inspired, contributed to or made an impact in the field of ophthalmology and the wider health sector.

We wish to congratulate new Honorary Fellows Professor Usha Chakravarthy and Professor Carrie MacEwen. In Professor Chakravarthy’s citation, delivered by Andrew Dick, she was commended as an eminent Ophthalmologist with a gargantuan international reputation for leading and co-investigating major clinical research into age-related macular degeneration (AMD). She is particularly noted for the IVAN study which involved a trial of ranibizumab versus bevacizumab to treat neovascular age-related macular degeneration. She engaged multiple centres throughout the UK, local commissioners, NHS England and generated significant media interest throughout the project.

Professor Carrie MacEwen is a world-renowned Ophthalmologist who has dedicated her life to the field of ophthalmology as a clinician, teacher, researcher and leader. In her clinical work she derives great satisfaction from providing for her patients with complex needs and as a researcher she has over 150 publications in peer reviewed journals. From 2014-2017 Carrie served as President of The Royal College of Ophthalmologists during which she helped develop a College strategy, improved and safeguarded the governance structure of the College and set up the ‘Way Forward’ project to identify and share best practice within ophthalmology across the UK.

Read the full citations here.

We are now inviting nominations for 2020 Honorary Fellows. The closing date for applications is Monday 30 September 2019. To nominate an individual fill in the nomination form and return to jo.longden@rcophth.ac.uk by the closing date.