Prof White completed his medical training in Melbourne and then moved to Toronto Canada to pursue Neurology as part of a University Exchange Programme. While there he undertook research into ocular motor abnormalities in Parkinson’s disease, sparking a career long interest in higher control of ocular motor function. He completed the requirements for the MD degree in research at Melbourne University, by thesis, while in Toronto. He subsequently moved to London, working at St Thomas’ Hospital in the Medical Eye Unit, as well as at Moorfield’s Eye Hospital.
He returned to Australia and completed a PhD at ANU in Canberra before returning to Melbourne and the Monash Medical Centre, where he set up the Ocular Motor Research Laboratory, moving to Royal Melbourne and Melbourne University before subsequently returning to Monash, where he remains.
His major interest is the investigation of cognitive processing in the ocular motor system and the clinical utility of such measures in evaluating brain function in pathological states. The laboratory has defined the use of studies in cognitive processing in the oculomotor system as a means of quantifying progression in multiple sclerosis, as well as identifying characteristic central processing abnormalities in a host of other processes, including Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, schizophrenia, autism, cerebrovascular disease and other lesional degenerative disorders. He continues to investigate both the basic mechanisms of oculomotor cognitive processing and the applicability of such studies in a range of cerebral disease. Prof White has held a number of advisory positions and is currently also Chief Medical Officer for BioEye.