Prof Leopold Schmetterer

​Professor Schmetterer is Head of Ocular Imaging and Bioengineering and Devices Research Groups and Senior Scientific Director at SERI. He is an international expert in the areas of ocular and functional imaging with excellent sub-expertise in optical coherence tomography (OCT). His research interests encompass a broad range of ophthalmic imaging studies, including glaucoma, medical retina, and dry eye syndrome, as well as ocular pharmacology and clinical trials.

He has published more than 450 publications in international peer reviewed and his current H-index on Google Scholar is 96. He was invited for more than 200 lectures, including more than 20 keynote lectures; he has obtained more than SGD25 million grant funding since he joined SERI in 2016. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, the Acta Ophthalmologica, the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Ophthalmic Research and five other journals, as well as ad-hoc reviewers for more than 40 journals.

• PhD (1989)
• MSc (1986)

• Professor, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria (2026 – Present)
• Professor, School of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (2022 – Present)

• World's Top 2% Scientists (Elsevier-Stanford List) (2025)
• Distinguished Service Award, The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) (2025)
• Asia-Pacific Eye 100 Most Influential Ophthalmologists (2025)
• Second Prize, SingHealth Duke-NUS Research Team Award (2024)
• World’s Top 2% Scientists (Elsevier-Stanford List) (2024)
• World’s Top 2% Scientists (Elsevier-Stanford List) (2023)
• SingHealth Excellence Awards for Distinguished Researcher Award (2023)
• Best Medicine Scientists in Singapore (2023)
• First Prize, SingHealth Duke-NUS Research Team Award (2022)
• Gold Fellow, The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) (2019)
• Honorary Degree, Technical University, Bucharest (2019)
• Gold Medal, Acta Ophthalmoologica (2017)
• Honorary Degree, Carol Davila University, Bucharest (2016)
• Hans Goldmann Medal, Switzerland (2015)
• International Bach Lecture, Leipzig (2014)
• Silver Fellow, The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) (2014)
• Visionary of the Quarter, European Vision Institute (2011)
• First Prize, International MSD Award (2002)
• Austrian Höchst Award (1998)

• ​AI Prediction of Glaucoma Progression (2022 – Present)
• Imaging of PEX Material at the Lens Surface (2022 – Present)
• Use of GAN and Diffusion Models for Generating Artificial Fundus and OCT Images (2021 – Present)
• Imaging Fibrosis in AMD using Polarization-sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PS-OCT) (2021 – Present)
• Application of Ultrahigh Resolution OCT Imaging (2019 – Present)
• Quantitative Doppler OCT and OCT Angiography Imaging (2019 – Present)
• In Vivo Functional OCT Imaging (2019 – Present)
• Multimodal 2-photon Imaging (2019 – Present)
• Development of a Polarization-sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PS-OCT) System for Characterization of Scleral Biomechanical Properties (2019 – Present)
• Visualization of Aqueous Humor Outflow Structures using Ultra-high Resolution OCT (2017 – Present)
• Modelling of Retinal Blood Flow based on Retinal Fundus Photography (2017 – Present)
• Modelling the Pressure/flow Relationship in Patients with Glaucoma (2016 – Present)

1. Hemelings R, Wong DW, Chua J, Van Eijgen J, Barbosa-Breda J, Ehongo A, Collignon N, Kiekens S, König SC, Elen B, Tan B, Garhöfer G, Barbastathis G, Uusitalo-Järvinen H, Schuster AK, Aung T, Tuulonen A, Stalmans I, Schmetterer L. Prediction of Structural Glaucoma Progression from Baseline Fundus Photographs using Deep Learning: A Retrospective Multicentre Study. Lancet Digit Health. 2027 Apr 29:101032.
2. Wong D, Chua J, Hemelings R, Tan B, Zhang C, Ling T, Garhöfer G, Cherecheanu AP, Stalmans I, Schmetterer L. Update on the Structure-function Relationship in Glaucoma. Surv Ophthalmol. 2026 Jun 3:S0039-6257(26)00077-9.
3. Wong D, Sreejith Kumar AJ, Chong RS, Nongpiur ME, Husain R, Wong T, Perera S, Aung T, Tan B, Cheng CY, Vithana EN, Chua J, Cherecheanu AP, Schmetterer L. SYN-OCT: A Synthetic Dataset of Ocular Optical Coherence Tomography Images from Healthy and Glaucoma Eyes. Sci Data. 2026 Mar 10;13(1):637.
4. Chua J, Singh S, Gong S, Wong D, Tan B, Toh AQ, Venketasubramanian N, Tan BY, Chong JR, Lai MKP, Chen CL, Schmetterer L. Combining OCT and OCT Angiography Improves Differentiation of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2026 Jan 27;18(1):39.
5. Li H, Weiss CE, Pandiyan VP, Nanni D, Liu T, Kung PW, Tan B, Barathi VA, Schmetterer L, Sabesan R, Ling T. Optoretinography Reveals Rapid Rod Photoreceptor Movement Upon Rhodopsin Activation. Light Sci Appl. 2026 Jan 7;15(1):58.
6. Win KY, Ng YBZ, Hu Q, Mohammad Naim SRB, Chua J, Nongpiur ME, Aung T, Schmetterer L, Werkmeister RM, Tan B. Three-dimensional Morphometric Analysis of Exfoliative Material using Ultrahigh-resolution OCT in Exfoliation Syndrome. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2025 Nov 3;66(14):50.
7. An X, Chua J, Wang Y, Hemelings R, Husain R, Chong R, Wong T, Aung T, Wong D, Zhang C, Schmetterer L. Addressing Glaucoma Structure-function Relationship: A Multi-task Learning Framework with Multi-modal and Unpaired Data. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2026 Feb;45(2):448-462.
8. Wong D, Ng Y, Eppenberger LS, Cherecheanu AP, Anghelache A, Toma E, Coroleuca R, Garcia-Feijoo J, Garhöfer G, Schmetterer L. Toward Automated Assessment of Conjunctival Hyperemia: A Semisupervised Artificial Intelligence Approach. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2025 Sep;1551(1):201-209.
9. Zhou Y, Ahmed TS, Wang M, Newman EA, Schmetterer L, Fu H, Cheng J, Tan B. Masked Vascular Structure Segmentation and Completion in Retinal Images. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2025 Jun;44(6):2492-2503.
10. Chua J, Li C, Antochi F, Toma E, Wong D, Tan B, Garhöfer G, Hilal S, Popa-Cherecheanu A, Chen CL, Schmetterer L. Utilising Deep Learning to Predict Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment With Optical Coherence Tomography. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2025 Jan 14;17(1):e70041.
11. Eppenberger LS, Li C, Wong D, Tan B, Garhöfer G, Hilal S, Chong E, Toh AQ, Venketasubramanian N, Chen CL, Schmetterer L, Chua J. Retinal Thickness Predicts the Risk of Cognitive Decline Over Five Years. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2024 Dec 23;16(1):273.
12. Tan B, Shah JN, McNabb RP, Jayaraman S, Wong D, Chua J, Ang M, Saw SM, Jonas JB, Kuo AN, Hoang QV, Schmetterer L. Distortion-corrected Posterior Ocular Shape in Myopic Eyes Assessed by Ultrawide OCT Detects Deformations Associated with Vision-threatening Changes. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2024 Nov 4;65(13):22.
13. Chua J, Tan B, Wong D, Garhöfer G, Liew XW, Popa-Cherecheanu A, Loong Chin CW, Milea D, Li-Hsian Chen C, Schmetterer L. Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography of the Retina and Choroid in Systemic Diseases. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2024 Nov;103:101292.
14. Chua J, Li C, Wong DWK, Chong RS, Husain R, Wong TT, Vass C, Cheng CY, Aung T, Schmetterer L. Anatomical Compensation of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Improves the Detection of Glaucoma Between Ethnicities. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2024 Oct;1540(1):338-349.
15. Tan B, Chua J, Wong D, Liu X, Ismail M, Schmetterer L. Techniques for Imaging the Choroid and Choroidal Blood Flow in vivo. Exp Eye Res. 2024 Oct;247:110045.
16. Tan B, Li H, Zhou Y, Han L, Mupparapu R, Nanni D, Barathi VA, Palanker D, Schmetterer L, Ling T. Light-evoked Deformations in Rod Photoreceptors, Pigment Epithelium and Subretinal Space Revealed by Prolonged and Multilayered Optoretinography. Nat Commun. 2024 Jun 19;15(1):5156.
17. Bellemo V, Kumar Das A, Sreng S, Chua J, Wong D, Shah J, Jonas R, Tan B, Liu X, Xu X, Tan GSW, Agrawal R, Ting DSW, Yong L, Schmetterer L. Optical Coherence Tomography Choroidal Enhancement using Generative Deep Learning. NPJ Digit Med. 2024 May 4;7(1):115.
18. Liu X, Jiang L, Ke M, Sigal IA, Chua J, Hoang QV, Chia AW, Najjar RP, Tan B, Cheong J, Bellemo V, Chong RS, Girard MJA, Ang M, Liu M, Garhöfer G, Barathi VA, Saw SM, Villiger M, Schmetterer L. Posterior Scleral Birefringence Measured by Triple-input Polarisation-sensitive Imaging as a Biomarker of Myopia Progression. Nat Biomed Eng. 2023 Aug;7(8):986-1000.
19. Schmetterer L, Scholl H, Garhöfer G, Janeschitz-Kriegl L, Corvi F, Sadda SR, Medeiros FA. Endpoints for Clinical Trials in Ophthalmology. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2023 Nov;97:101160.
20. Hommer N, Kallab M, Schlatter A, Howorka K, Werkmeister RM, Schmidl D, Schmetterer L, Garhöfer G. Retinal Oxygen Metabolism in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Different Stages of Diabetic Retinopathy. Diabetes. 2022 Dec 1;71(12):2677-2684.