Professor Pearse Keane awarded Royal Society’s Gabor Medal 2025

The Royal Society has announced that UCD School of Medicine alumnus, Professor Pearse Keane, is the recipient of the 2025 Gabor Medal, in recognition of pioneering retinal imaging research driven by artificial intelligence (AI). 

The award recognises his world-leading role in developing AI methods for retinal image analysis, advancing both the diagnosis of eye disease and the wider field of Oculomics — the use of eye scans to detect early signs of systemic conditions such as dementia, stroke and heart disease.

Pearse has been at the forefront of a revolution in ophthalmology. After completing medical training at UCD in 2002, he undertook research at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles, where he worked with the inventors of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). 

Since joining UCL in 2013, he has combined cutting-edge research with clinical care at Moorfields Eye Hospital. In 2015, he initiated a landmark collaboration with Google DeepMind, resulting in a 2018 (opens in a new window)Nature Medicine study showing that AI could match human experts in identifying over 50 eye diseases from an image of the retina. Pearse then co-founded INSIGHT, which has grown to become the world’s largest ophthalmology bio-resource, and he continues to lead research with the potential to transform healthcare delivery.

The Gabor Medal, established in 1989 in honour of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dennis Gabor, is awarded annually for distinction in interdisciplinary work between life sciences and other disciplines. Previous recipients include Nobel Prize winner Sir Richard Roberts (2007), who discovered the mechanism of gene splicing, and Dame Angela McLean (2011), current Chief Scientific Advisor to the government, for pivotal work on immunity.

Accepting the award, Professor Keane said: “I am deeply honoured to receive the Gabor Medal for distinction in interdisciplinary work. I have always drawn inspiration from the Royal Society’s founding ethos of bringing together scientific minds from different disciplines to tackle the biggest challenges facing society. In that spirit, I would like to thank the many talented and driven scientists who have been part of my journey, especially three inspirational champions of my work:  Eric Topol, Alastair Denniston and Sir Peng Khaw.”

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society, said: “The recipients of this year’s medals and awards have all made outstanding contributions to science and its applications for the benefit of humanity.  They have done so through by furthering our understanding of the processes that govern the world around us, changing the practices of academia to build a more robust and inclusive research environment, and engaging new audiences. Celebrating these diverse contributions is core to the Society’s mission and I offer my congratulations to all the 2025 recipients.”

(opens in a new window)Read the full announcement from the Royal Society.

The above is from the INSIGHT communications team (opens in a new window)article.

Listen to Prof Keane’s MGA Clinical Influencer’s Podcast episode (Series 4, Ep 2) here.