Prof. Chee Yung Clement THAM

Research Area

1. Primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) and normal tension glaucoma (NTG)
2. Lens extraction in glaucoma, alone or with interventions
3. Efficacy and safety of glaucoma treatments: laser procedures, minimally invasive surgeries, trabeculectomy, and goniosynechialysis
4. AI and imaging technologies in glaucoma detection and progression
5. Molecular genetics and mechanisms of glaucoma and myopia

Professional Profile

Prof. Clement C.Y. THAM is the Chairman and S.H. Ho Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and the Director of CUHK Eye Centre. Internationally, he serves as Secretary-General and CEO of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO), the largest supranational ophthalmic organization, comprising 39 national and regional subspecialty societies in the Asia-Pacific region. Membership totals over 120,000 ophthalmologists, about 59% of the global total. Prof. Tham is President of the Asia-Pacific Glaucoma Society (APGS), with over 5,000 ophthalmologists specializing in glaucoma. He is also the Past President of the College of Ophthalmologists of Hong Kong and the Immediate Past Treasurer of the International Council of Ophthalmology.

For his work on blindness prevention, Prof. Tham received the inaugural Nakajima Award by APAO and the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award in Hong Kong in 2005. He earned the APAO Outstanding Service in Prevention of Blindness Award in 2011, the APAO Distinguished Service Award in 2013, and the Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) in 2016. At the 28th APAO Congress in Hyderabad in 2013, he received the Holmes Award, the highest award for blindness prevention in the region. In 2015, he was honored with the De Ocampo Award at the APAO Congress in Guangzhou, China, for excellence in eye research. He also received the World Glaucoma Association (WGA) Special Recognition Award in 2021.

Prof. Tham was recognized by Expertscape as the top 1% of scholars writing on glaucoma in the past decade. He was named in ‵The Ophthalmologist Power List – Top 100 Most Influential Ophthalmologists′ in 2022, 2023, and 2024, the “Top 10” of “Asia-Pacific Eye 100” in 2023 and 2025, and the “World Eye-Cons-21” of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology in 2024 and 2025. He has also received numerous awards for contributions to research and education in ophthalmology.