Tiarnan Keenan

Keenan has received several awards, including the UK’s Royal College of Ophthalmologists/ Fight For Sight Research Prize, and the 2013 Fulbright Fight for Sight Research Award, which allowed him to study the role of the complement system in AMD using Gregory Hageman’s “unique repository of 12,000 human eyes”, held at the University of Utah. He’s no stranger to working with tissue from an eye bank – as a Fight for Sight Clinical Fellow at the University of Manchester, he has already used such materials in order to study the how the macula ages.

Other awards and recognitions including an ARVO international travel award, a North West ophthalmology trainee research prize, and several prizes for his research papers.

He has over 15 first author publications, and his research has led to the discovery of a potential new disease mechanism in AMD. He is currently completing his clinical training at Manchester, and continues to publish his clinical and scientific research in the field of retinal disease.

A nominator said: “Tiarnan Keenan is an excellent young researcher, who went to work with Greg Hageman in Utah to unravel the mysteries of AMD pathogenesis – and I’m sure he’s learned a lot. He’s a really gifted guy, and I’m sure he’ll do great things over the course of his career.”

Part of the Power List 2015

In 2014, we compiled a list of the Top 100 most influential people in ophthalmology – an endeavor that received a significant amount of attention and, it’s fair to say, caused more than a little controversy. For our 2015 Top 40 Under 40 list we’ve taken a different approach, asking: who are the young, up-and-coming individuals set to rise to the top of their field? That’s the question we posed to ourselves – and then to you – ahead of open nominations and a painstaking judging process. Our list this year almost halves the average age of the celebrated individuals, with many of them born in the same year as the iconic Sex Pistols cover – 1977. Though we admit that no list of this type can be definitive, it does clearly show that the future of ophthalmology is very bright indeed. And so, without further ado, we celebrate the movers and shakers aged 40 or under who show what can be achieved with determination, passion and inspiration.

Go to The Power List 2015