Prof Damien Harkin is a Professor at the Centre for Vision and Eye Research, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland, Australia. He is an experienced teacher and medical researcher, in the areas of human structure, function and disease His main area of research focus for the last 20 years has been the development of cell and tissue therapies for the treatment of common and severe eye diseases. This research has been supported by over $3M dollars in research funding and has led to over 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. Professor Harkin received his BSc and PhD (Pathology) from the University of Adelaide (1993) before completing postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School (1994-1996) and the University of Melbourne (1997). He commenced working at QUT as a lecturer in 2001 and was promoted to Professor in 2016. Professor Harkin also holds honorary positions at the Queensland Eye Institute (since 2005) and Australian Red Cross LifeBlood (since 2020).