Dr Simon Holland
Pasific Laser Eye Clinic, Vancouver
Speaker Biography
Dr. Simon P. Holland, MB, MRCP, FRCSC, FRCOph, FRCS(Eng) is the Clinical Professor, Cornea Division at University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver. He is the Chair of Orbis Canada, an NGO working the advancement and training in Eye Care in low and middle income countries .
He is Research Director at the Pacific Laser Eye Clinic in Vancouver. Simon was born and raised in Zimbabwe, where he completed his initial medical training. He graduated with Honours in Medicine, completed an Internal Medicine residency in the UK and an ophthalmology residency at UBC in 1982.
From 1982–1986, he was Medical Director of Orbis’s original DC-8 Flying Eye Hospital, after which he completed a corneal fellowship and joined the Faculty in the Corneal and External Disease division at the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute 1986-90. This was followed by a Refractive Surgery fellowship at the Institute of Ophthalmology in London, UK. Dr.Holland has been a member of the faculty at UBC for corneal, cataract and refractive disorders since 1990.
He is the Chair of the Canadian TASS Task Force, Co-chair of the Canadian International and Public Health Committee, and volunteering as a lecturer and external examiner for East African Ophthalmology College, in Moshi, Tanzania from 2006–2010.Research interests include therapeutic laser corneal surgery. Simon has received the Lifetime
Achievement Award from the Canadian Ophthalmological Society 2020, Mentor of the year from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and Senior Honor and Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. In Jan2023, he was appointed as a new representative for the UBC Ophthalmology Branch for Global Surgical Care.