Rate My Professor Akilesh Gokul

Akilesh Gokul is a Senior Lecturer in Ophthalmology in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. He holds a Bachelor of Optometry with First Class Honours and a PhD from the University of Auckland, with his doctoral research focused on keratoconus, its epidemiology, progression, and management through corneal collagen cross-linking. Gokul completed his PhD thesis in 2016, passed his oral examination without corrections in 2017, and was awarded the degree in 2018. His work is supervised by Professor Charles McGhee and Associate Professor Dipika Patel.

Following his doctorate, Gokul has continued as a clinician-scientist conducting postdoctoral research on the clinical characteristics and contact lens management of keratoconus before and after corneal transplantation, as well as further studies on corneal collagen cross-linking. He has authored or co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications on these topics and has presented at national and international conferences. Gokul is also involved in teaching undergraduate optometry laboratories and components of the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery programme at the University of Auckland. He maintains clinical practice as an optometrist specialising in keratoconus at Mortimer Hirst and in public and private ophthalmology settings. Gokul has received several scholarships, including the University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship and the New Zealand Association of Optometrists Postgraduate Scholarship.