Final program | 33rd APACRS – SNEC 30th Anninversary Virtual Meeting

The Barry Cullen International Fellowship in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Visit http://bit.ly/2QhiBcj or scan to Donate As Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 2020, the Centre would like to pay special tribute to individuals whose passion, commitment and contributions helped shape the field of ophthalmology in Singapore. James Finbarr Cullen—known to most of us as Barry—is one of those individuals. Most of us met Barry after he had joined SNEC in the 1990s. But even before then, Barry had already enjoyed a long and distinguished 40 years in ophthalmology. He first graduated from the National University of Ireland in 1952 and did his fellowship in Neuro-Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in the U.S. He was then appointed consultant to the Department of Ophthalmology, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and the Department of Neurosurgery Western General Hospital from 1962 to 1994. In his time as Consultant Ophthalmologist and, subsequently, Head of the Ophthalmology Service, Barry saved and restored the sight of numerous patients, as well as diagnosed conditions that had mystified fellow colleagues. At the same time, he taught, mentored, and inspired generations of ophthalmologists, both locally and internationally, who would go on to become leaders in their own right. Barry was also Examiner, and later Chief Examiner, in Ophthalmology for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1967 to 1998, and it was in this capacity that he began his association and friendship with ophthalmologists in Singapore and Malaysia in the 1980s, and advanced the training and accreditation of ophthalmology trainees in the region. The collaboration between Barry and Prof. Arthur Lim, founding Medical Director of SNEC, established a formal ophthalmology education and training program locally that paved the way for the next generations of ophthalmologists to be trained in Singapore. When Vivian Balakrishnan, then Medical Director of SNEC, invited him to Singapore to set up the Neuro-Ophthalmology Service at SNEC, Barry left Edinburgh for what he thought then would be a 1- to 2-year commitment, but wound up spending the next 15 years in Singapore until his retirement in 2015. Barry passed away peacefully on 23 Sept 2020 at the age of 92 years in Edinburgh. In order to honor Barry, our passionate guide and teacher, who exemplified the spirit of life-long learning, and a titan in ophthalmology, we intend to establish the Barry Cullen International Fellowship in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. This prestigious award will be conferred on a local or international fellow who intends to pursue subspecialty training at SNEC, preferably in Neuro-Ophthalmology. We hope that you will join us in this effort to honor Barry and continue his legacy of passion, commitment and joy for ophthalmology by making a generous donation to help raise the SGD$625,000 necessary to establish the Fellowship. 64