James Muecke

Muecke was born in Adelaide and raised in Canberra.[3][4] He lived in Washington, D.C., as a child while his father worked for the Australian embassy.[5] He attended Canberra Grammar School from 1976 to 1981.[6] After failing to get into medicine at the University of Sydney by one mark,[5] Muecke returned to Adelaide to study medicine at the University of Adelaide,[7] graduating in 1987.[8] He later trained as an ophthalmologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and subspecialty training in eye cancer in London[8]

Muecke began his career working in Kenya for 12 months.[1] After his ophthalmology training, he worked for a year at Saint John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem, including taking "outreach eye clinics" into refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[3][8][9] He returned to South Australia and became an eye surgeon, working in private practice and as a visiting consultant at the Royal Adelaide and Women's and Children's Hospitals.[8]

In 2000, Muecke founded Vision Myanmar at the South Australian Institute of Ophthalmology.[10] In 2008, this evolved into Sight For All, a social impact organisation dedicated to fighting the causes of blindness[1] with projects in Aboriginal and mainstream Australian communities,[11] as well as training and equipping eye surgeons throughout Africa and Asia.[12] Muecke is Chair and co-founder of Sight for All.[8] Working with AusAID funding and the co-operation of both country's governments, Muecke created a program to create more than 30 specialist eye centres in Myanmar to treat cataract blindness.[9]

In the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours, Muecke was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).[13] He received the University of Adelaide's Vice-Chancellor's Alumni Award in 2019.[7]

In November 2019, Muecke was named South Australian of the Year for 2020.[14] In January 2020, he was named Australian of the Year for his work in preventing blindness.[11][10] He had planned to speak at events around the country throughout the year, but the COVID-19 pandemic meant most of his presentations outside Adelaide were delivered online.[15]

On being appointed Australian of the Year, Muecke immediately advocated for a tax on sugary drinks in the fight against Type 2 diabetes,[16][17] which is the leading cause of blindness among Australian adults.[12] He advocated for TV commercials for unhealthy products to be limited to certain hours, and asks supermarket chains to curb their "predatory sales and marketing tactics", without success.[15] Australia Post did remove junk food from their checkouts following a meeting with him.[15] In late November 2020, he gave a controversial speech to the National Press Club outlining what he described as the country's "flawed, biased and unscientific" Australian Dietary Guidelines.[18] He also brought his concerns to the Health Minister Greg Hunt.[19] He was credited by Hunt in the launching of a new ten-year National Diabetes Plan in November 2021.[20] Muecke is also a key contributor to Australian Community Media's "Silent Assassin" series on the causes and consequences of Australia's type 2 diabetes epidemic.[21][22]

In 2016, Muecke had to stop conducting surgeries due to an inherited neurological condition (focal dystonia) impacting use of his right hand.[23][24]

On 20 January 2022, the Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall, announced that Muecke would be the state's new Lieutenant Governor, succeeding Brenda Wilson.[2] The role is appointed for a term at the "Governor's pleasure" and acts as vice-regal representative in the Governor's absence.[25]

• Outstanding Service in Prevention of Blindness Award, Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology, 2011[8]
• Member of the Order of Australia, 2012[8]
• South Australian Community Achievement Award, 2021[6]
• Australian Medical Association President's Leadership Award, 2013[6]
• Pride of Australia Medal finalist, 2014[6]
• Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 2015[8]
• Adelaide University Distinguished Alumni-Vice Chancellor's Award, 2019[26]
• 2020 South Australian of the Year
• 2020 Australian of the Year[11]
• Honorary Doctorate, Adelaide University, 2021[26]

Muecke is married to Mena, a former architect who is Sight for All's events director, and they have two sons.[8][5] He is a keen amateur photographer and has held exhibitions and self-published a coffee table book, which helped fund a children's eye unit in Myanmar.[8]