Career profile: Professor Jonathan Jackson MCOptom

14 November 2022
Autumn 2022
Public health Research Career profile Practice

A conversation about clinical care in Northern Ireland and a passion for research.

Who? 

Professor Jonathan Jackson

Current job? 

Director of the NICRN and Head of Optometry at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast

Where?

Northern Ireland

Why did you go into optometry?

Both my dad and my aunt were optometrists, but throughout school I aspired to be a medic. I spent too much time kicking a ball around at school and not enough time revising, so my plan was to study optometry as a route into medicine. I really enjoyed the optometry course in Glasgow and got a first-class degree, so it made sense to complete a pre-reg. I then decided to do a PhD in the labs in parallel with setting up a hospital optometry department in Belfast. I soon realised that I loved what I did and decided to park the med school idea – for now at least! 

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