I received my medical degree (MD) in 1986 in Budapest, Hungary and became a Fellow of the Association of Hungarian Ophthalmologists in 1990. I completed my PhD at The University of Sydney in 2000 on the role of the environment in the initiation or progression of retinal degenerations. Thereafter, I took on a postdoctoral research position in the Department of Anatomy and Histology at The University of Sydney. During my years at USYD I have participated in and formed many scientific collaborations, including a long-standing collaborative relationship with Prof Silvia Bisti, at the Universitá di L'Aquila, Italy.  In early 2003 I left The University of Sydney and took up a postdoctoral position at the Research School of Biological Sciences at The ANU. I became a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science in 2006. I also received a graduate certificate in teaching in higher education in 2008 (ANU,CEDAM)