About
A/Prof Smita Agarwal, affectionately known to her friends, colleagues, and her patients as Smita, is a highly regarded and experienced senior comprehensive ophthalmologist and eye surgeon. She is dedicated to the field of ophthalmology, and is an active contributor both within the Australian and the global ophthalmic community.
As Medical Director and founder of both Wollongong Eye Specialists and the Wollongong Refractive Laser Eye Institute, she is currently consulting and performing surgery in her chosen subspecialties which are cataract, refractive, and general ophthalmology.
In addition to her consulting and surgical management, she engages globally in teaching, education programs and positions, mentoring activities, volunteer and community work, research projects, speaking and presenting, and is a member of several professional ophthalmic associations.
Born in India, Smita graduated from King George’s Medical College in Lucknow, India with a Bachelor of Medicine degree. She completed her first post graduate degree, Master of Surgery in Ophthalmology from the University of Allahabad, India. Smita completed her ophthalmology training at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne, Australia gaining FRANZCO fellowship in 2006. She went on to do an advanced fellowship for another year in Melbourne before moving back to Sydney. In addition she has a Graduate Diploma in Refractive Surgery from the University of Sydney.
This website seeks to provide both current and past insight into her career, qualifications, positions, and work to date. Also see highlighted and briefly summarised below some of her recent achievements and areas of focus.
- A/Prof Agarwal is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong and is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney.
- A/Prof Agarwal is a member of the Specialist International Medical Graduate Committee (SIMG) of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO).
- A/Prof Agarwal has earned a certificate in “AI in Health Care From Strategies to Implementation” from Harvard Medical School (Feb 2025).
- A/Prof Agarwal provides comprehensive general and sub-specialty ophthalmology services to her patients. She conducts clinics from her rooms at Wollongong Eye Specialists offering three practice locations – Wollongong, Nowra and Warilla – and works at local public and several hospitals located at Wollongong, Nowra and Shellharbour.
- A/Prof Agarwal is passionate about providing exceptional ophthalmic consulting services and surgical management in her regional area, striving to meet the needs of this regional area with a global standard of eye care.
- A/Prof Agarwal has dual speciality expertise in cataract and refractive surgery, and has special interest in corneal cross-linking for progressive Keratoconus. This is in addition to working as a general senior ophthalmologist, including glaucoma and age related macular degeneration (AMD).
- A/Prof Agarwal has been instrumental in the setting up of the Wollongong Refractive Laser Eye Institute. This is the only clinic on the South Coast of NSW that offers Laser Vision Correction procedures like SMILE® Pro, PresbyLASIK, LASIK and PRK. It houses a complete suite of the latest state-of-the-art refractive equipment and technology.
- A/Prof Agarwal is passionate about and actively involved in the teaching and mentoring of medical professionals and students. Smita teaches medical registrars and interns at the public hospital, and regularly conducts continued medical education seminars for doctors and optometrists. She has taught eye surgery, including cataract surgery, to ophthalmology registrars at Westmead Eye Hospital in Sydney and Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne.
- A/Prof Agarwal is dedicated innovator in the field of ophthalmology. She developed a new technique to manage epithelial cell ingrowth, including the invention of an instrument related to that technique. She produced a film on her inventions which was awarded second prize (Runners-up Trophy) in the New Techniques category at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ASCRS) Film Festival held in April 2024 at Boston, USA. Find out more here.
- A/Prof Agarwal designed an instrument to remove epithelial cells from under the LASIK flap and inside SMILE pocket, which is one of the worst nightmares for any refractive surgeons. It is available with FAROcare in Australia and Epsilon USA internationally and named as Smita’s Epithelial Cell Curette. She was invited to present her technique with her instrument recently at ESCR (Barcelona) in surgical arena session.
- A/Prof Agarwal is an active collaborator and contributor to ophthalmic research and has published numerous research papers in peer-reviewed journals locally and overseas.
- As a leader in her field, A/Prof Agarwal is frequently invited to speak at ophthalmology conferences and seminars nationally and internationally.
- A/Prof Agarwal has a deep sense of responsibility to under-privileged communities and regularly donates her time providing pro-bono ophthalmology services to communities in Fiji, India, Peru and Cambodia.
Moments in the professional life of A/Prof Smita Agarwal in colour!
A diverse & celebrated career
To further explore the career and work of A/Prof Smita Agarwal hit the links below.
A/Prof Smita Agarwal is an experienced Wollongong based ophthalmologist and eye surgeon who is a leader in her field. She is recognised as a surgeon, educator, speaker, and researcher in several subspecialities including cataract, refractive and general ophthalmology.
Connect with her here.