A/Professor Qian Garrett is the Director of Research Office, the University of Notre Dame Australia,exercising leadership in all matters involving research; responsible for the development of research culture, oversight of higher degree by research student training, and building research partnerships.

A/Professor Garrett has over 20 years of experience in biomedical research and product development. She has led many successful high-impact projects on research and commercialisation of technology in therapeutics and biomedical devices for prevention and treatment of ocular wounds/defects and dry eyes, and for vision correction.

A/Professor Garrett is a Senior Visiting Fellow of the SOVS. She has supervised 20 research (doctoral and honours) students in the fields of ocular wound healing, dry eyes, physiology of the ocular surface, biocompatibility and comfort wear of contact lenses. A/Professor Garrett has secured over $2.5M of external funding as a lead investigator. She has led and co-authored more than 70 publications (book chapters, journal articles, patents and conference papers).

A/Professor Garrett completed her Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Australia. She was a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London (UK). She was a Japanese Science & Technology Agency Research Fellow at the Takasaki Radiation Chemistry Research Establishment, Japan. Prior to joining the University of Notre Dame Australia, A/Professor Garrett was a Senior Research Fellow and Manager of the Biological Sciences at the Brien Holden Vision Institute, and the Research Development and Program Coordinator at the Centre for Oncology Education and Research Translation, Australia.