Tor Paaske Utheim is a consultant at the Department of Ophthalmology at five hospitals in Norway, where he is also Director of Research and/or Innovation: Oslo University Hospital, Stavanger University Hospital, Sørlandet Hospital Arendal, Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg and Vestre Viken Hospital Trust, Drammen.
He is the group leader of the Unit of Regenerative Medicine at the Department of Medical Biochemistry, Oslo University, as well as the Unit of Research-based Innovation at the Division of Head, Neck and Reconstructive Surgery at Oslo University Hospital. He co-leads the electron microscopy laboratory at the University of Oslo and holds nine professorships split between the University of Oslo, Oslo Metropolitan University, University of South-Eastern Norway, University of Bergen, University of Stavanger and the University of Agder. Utheim is the co-founder of the Norwegian Dry Eye Clinic and the Institute of Eye Health in Oslo, Norway.
In 2012, Utheim was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Harvard Medical School, and in 2013, he was appointed Adjunct Clinical Associate of Schepens Eye Research Institute at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School. Professor Utheim has received more than 20 academic, research, and innovation awards and honors, including the Oslo University Hospital Early Career Award for outstanding research (NOK 150.000); the Director’s Award for Excellent Research at Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål; the European Society of Ophthalmology Award for the most promising Norwegian Young Clinician/Researcher; and, together with his research group, the Medinnova’s Innovation Prize of NOK 250.000.
He has supervised 17 past PhD students (10 as the main supervisor) and is currently supervising more than 20 PhD and medical research students (three-year research program). Utheim has been a moderator on dry eye disease and stem cells several times at the annual conferences for the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and given talks at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, as well as Harvard Medical School and American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, MA. He has also been the invited keynote speaker on several occasions, giving talks on innovation at Oslo Metropolitan University and dry eye disease at the Iranian Association for Vision and Ophthalmology and Specsavers Clinical Conferences in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands.
Utheim represents Norway as Global Ambassador for The Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society. He is a board member of the International Ocular Surface Society. Utheim has served on the Novartis Global Advisory Board, Alcon Global Advisory Board, and Shire European Advisory Board. He has co-established seven companies. One company was funded exclusively by external sources based on two of his patent applications.