Rajni Rajan is a current full-time PhD candidate in the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences at the University of Melbourne, supervised by A/Prof Laura Downie and Dr Holly Chinnery. She holds a Bachelor of Optometry (2000) and a Master of Philosophy in Optometry (2009) from the Elite School of Optometry, Chennai, India. She practised optometry in the states of West Bengal and Maharashtra in India from 2001 to 2007 and worked as a clinical optometrist in the contact lens clinic at the Sankara Nethralaya Eye Hospital, Chennai, India from 2010 to 2017. Her research focuses on investigating the responses of corneal nerve and corneal immune cells to nociceptive stimuli in homeostasis, and in conditions characterised by damage to the corneal nerves.