Matthew Burton is Professor of Global Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He leads one of the world’s largest international multidisciplinary research departments, improving eye health in low and middle-income countries. He is a world authority on trachoma, a major cause of world blindness, having conducted pioneering research on epidemiology, pathophysiology and control in Africa. He was instrumental in facilitating the Prime Minister’s Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee initiative in eye health, resulting in the elimination of trachoma in several African countries and building Commonwealth eye health capacity as Director of the Commonwealth Eye Health Consortium.