Presented by American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS)

The RRF Pyron Award was created by RRF to recognize outstanding vision scientists whose work contributes to knowledge about vitreoretinal disease. Funding for this Award is provided in the amount of $50,000 by Retina Research Foundation. This award was made possible by an estate gift to RRF from Gertrude D. Pyron of San Antonio, Texas. She was an eminent geologist who admired Dr. Alice McPherson’s leadership in vision science. Prior to 2000, the Pyron Award had been named the W. H. Helmerich III Award in honor of his service to the community.

2023 RRF Pyron Award Recipient

Eugene de Juan, Jr., MD

University of California (UCSF), San Francisco, CA

Award and Lecture presented at the ASRS Annual Meeting, July 29, 2023, Seattle, WA

Title of Lecture: The Road Less Traveled

Education, Research Interests and Career Achievements

Dr. Eugene de Juan is the Jean Kelly Stock Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Francisco, a position he has held since 2005. Dr. de Juan served as President of ASRS 2005-2006.

In 2005, Dr. de Juan established ForSight Labs, a serial ophthalmic company incubator that has helped develop 12 companies to date. He is the inventor or co-inventor of nearly 100 products. Dr. de Juan holds 150 US patents and has more than 150 other patent applications pending. He is the founder/director of 20 companies with 8 exits, 6 partnered programs, and 6 venture capital/angel-funded entities. Dr. de Juan has co-authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and 10 textbooks.

Dr. de Juan moved to the University of Southern California in 2001 as a professor and was appointed CEO of the newly formed Doheny Retina Institute, a position he held until 2005. Previously, Dr. de Juan was appointed Joseph E. Green Professor of Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University’s Wilmer Eye Institute in 1992 and served in that position until 2001. He was an assistant and associate professor at Duke University from 1984 to 1992, with a dual appointment in cell biology—positions Dr. de Juan began after completing his retina fellowship at Duke in 1984 and his ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute in 1983. He completed his medical degree and internship at the University of South Alabama in Mobile.

2022 RRF Pyron Award Recipient

Mary Elizabeth Hartnett, MD

University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Award and Lecture presented at the ASRS Annual Meeting, July 15, 2022, New York, NY

Title of Lecture: Targeting Pathologic Signaling to Restore Homeostasis in Retinal Diseases

Education, Research Interests and Career Achievements

Mary Elizabeth Hartnett, MD, holds the Calvin S. and JeNeal N. Hatch Presidential Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Utah. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Utah departments of Neurobiology and Pediatrics. Dr. Hartnett is the founder and director of Pediatric Retina at the John A. Moran Eye Center and principal investigator of the Retinal Angiogenesis Laboratory. She created the first-ever academic textbook on the subject, Pediatric Retina, in its third edition, which has proven to be an invaluable resource for residents and ophthalmologists internationally.

Dr. Hartnett’s NIH-funded laboratory of vascular biology and angiogenesis has studied mechanisms causing pathology in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Her work in AMD has been to understand the mechanisms involved in activation and invasion of choroidal endothelial cells anterior to the RPE in order to maintain vasculature that is physiologic and not damaging beneath the RPE. Her lab’s work in ROP provided the proof of concept to regulate an angiogenic signaling pathway by inhibiting VEGF to facilitate more normal intraretinal vascularization toward the ora serrata as well as to inhibit abnormal extraretinal neovascularization. She has translated her work through collaborations in protocol development of clinical trials.

Dr. Hartnett has received numerous awards, including the Weisenfeld Award, the highest award for clinician-scientists given by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), in 2018, and is an ARVO Gold Fellow.  She received the 2019 Paul Kayser/Retina Research Foundation Global Award, the Macula Society’s 2016 Paul Henkind Award and its 2019 Arnall Patz Medal, the Paul Kayser/RRF Global Award from the PanAmerica Society, and the 2021 Suzanne Veronneau-Troutman Award, the most prestigious award from Women in Ophthalmology. In 2022, she was one of six at the University of Utah to receive a distinguished research award, for Pediatrics and Ophthalmology.

Dr. Hartnett’s prolific publication record includes 227 articles in peer-reviewed journals and over 40 book chapters. She has delivered numerous national and international invited lectures. Her long list of professional committee work includes serving as chair of the Publications Committee of ARVO, as a mentor for the ARVO Leadership Development Program, and in leadership positions internationally as chair of the research advisory committees for The Macula Society and the Jack McGovern Coats Disease Foundation as well as Chair of the Credentialing Committee for The Retina Society. She reviews manuscripts for more than 20 eye and science journals and serves on the editorial boards of PlosOne, Molecular Vision, and the American Journal of Ophthalmology. Dr. Hartnett is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) and a Silver and Gold Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (FARVO).

2021 RRF Pyron Award Recipient

Cynthia A. Toth, MD

Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC

Award and Lecture presented at the ASRS Annual Meeting, October 12, 2021, San Antonio, TX

Title of Lecture: Retinal OCT at 29: Forever Young and for the Young

Education, Research Interests and Career Achievements

Dr. Toth is a vitreoretinal surgeon and clinician-scientist at Duke University. After Ophthalmology residency at Geisinger, she served on active duty in the US Air Force, completed vitreoretinal fellowship at University of California, Davis, and returned to active duty as a vitreoretinal surgeon in Texas, where she pursued research in optical coherence tomography (OCT) retinal imaging. She joined the Duke Faculty in 1993.

At Duke, Dr. Toth succeeded Robert Machemer in developing macular translocation surgery and as director of the surgical instrument prototyping laboratory. She applied her surgical expertise to complex adult and pediatric vitreoretinal conditions, and many of her surgical technologies translated to clinical use. Dr. Toth transformed the laboratory to the Duke Advanced Research in SD/SS OCT Imaging (DARSI) Laboratory, and co-founded the Duke Reading Center. Her individual and multi-center research leadership has been funded by NIH, Foundations and Industry. With Prof. Joseph Izatt in Biomedical Engineering, she was the first to integrate OCT imaging into use in retinal surgery. With a multidisciplinary team, she has taken image-guided ocular microsurgery to the next level to improve surgeon performance. Her research has also been the genesis for the field of retinal OCT imaging in infants and young children, and enabled FDA approval of the first handheld system for infant OCT imaging. The majority of Dr. Toth’s 285+ peer-reviewed publications, chapters and book, advance the understanding and use of OCT imaging and investigational imaging devices to guide diagnosis and clinical and surgical management.

Dr. Toth is Vice Chair of Clinical Research and Director of Physician-Scientist Development for Duke Eye Center. She has been recognized by: The Hartwell Foundation Research Awards; Irish Ophthalmologic Society Mooney Medal; Research to Prevent Blindness Physician Scientist and Stein Innovation Awards; Retina Society Research Award of Merit; Women in Ophthalmology Mentorship and Scientific Achievement Awards; Rockefeller Foundation Academic Writing Residency; Macula Society Paul Henkind Award; and Club Jules Gonin Wacker Prize.

Dr. Toth is grateful to the American Society of Retina Specialists, Alice R. McPherson and the Retina Research Foundation for their support of research and education in our field.

2020 RRF Pyron Award Recipient

Mark S. Humayun, MD, PhD

USC Roski Eye Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA

Award and Lecture presented at the ASRS Annual Meeting, October 11, 2021, San Antonio, TX

Title of Lecture: Advanced Retinal Implants

Education, Research Interests and Career Achievements

Dr. Humayun is an internationally recognized pioneer in vision restoration. He assembled a team of multidisciplinary experts to develop the first FDA-approved artificial retina, Argus II, for sight restoration. For his extraordinary contributions, Dr. Humayun was awarded the United States’ highest technological achievement, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, by President Barack Obama in 2016.

Dr. Humayun is a member of the US National Academies of Medicine, Engineering, and Inventors. He is a past president of ASRS (2016-2018) and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which honored him with the 2018 IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award and the 2020 IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology. He has more than 125 issued patents, and over 250 peer-reviewed publications.

2019 RRF Pyron Award Recipient

Joan M. O’Brien, MD

Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA

Award Presented at the ASRS Annual Meeting, July 28, 2019, Chicago, IL

Title of Lecture: Genetics of Retinal Disease

Education, Career Achievements, and Research Interests

Joan M. O’Brien, MD, has served as the George E. deSchweinitz and William F. Norris Professor of Ophthalmology, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Director of the Scheie Eye Institute at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine since January of 2010. Dr. O’Brien previously served as Professor and Vice Chair of Ophthalmology and Director of the Ocular Oncology Division at the University of California at San Francisco from 1995-2009.

Dr. O’Brien received her Medical Degree from Dartmouth Medical School in 1986. She completed an internship in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston in 1987, followed by research fellowships in immunology at Harvard Medical School and in molecular ophthalmic pathology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Whitehead Institute at MIT from 1987-1989. Dr. O’Brien subsequently completed a residency in ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1992 and a fellowship in ocular oncology at the University of California at San Francisco in 1993.

Dr. O’Brien specializes in the treatment of ocular tumors, including retinoblastoma, ocular melanoma, conjunctival malignancies, ocular metastases, and ocular and CNS lymphoma. Her research focuses on the genetics of eye disease, including retinoblastoma, melanoma and glaucoma. Dr. O’Brien’s laboratory is currently supported by the National Eye Institute and the National Cancer Institute. With nearly 200 publications in her field, Dr. O’Brien’s work has recently appeared in Nature, New New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

2018 RRF Pyron Award Recipient

Joan W. Miller, MD

David Glendenning Cogan Professor of Ophthalmology
Chief of Ophthalmology, Mass Eye and Ear and Mass General Hospital

Chair, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Award Presented at the ASRS Annual Meeting, July 22, 2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Title of Lecture: Treating AMD—Back to the Future

Education, Career Achievements, and Research Interests

Joan W. Miller, MD, is the David Glendenning Cogan Professor of Ophthalmology and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Chief of Ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Miller earned her medical degree and received her ophthalmology residency training from Harvard Medical School, and then completed fellowships in ophthalmology research and vitreoretinal surgery at Mass. Eye and Ear. In 2003, Dr. Miller became the first female physician to achieve the rank of Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, and the first woman to serve as chair of the Department of Ophthalmology. She is also the first woman appointed as Chief of Ophthalmology at both Mass. Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital.

An internationally recognized expert on retinal disorders, Dr. Miller and her colleagues at Mass. Eye and Ear developed verteporfin photodynamic therapy (PDT), the first pharmacologic treatment for retinal disease; co-discovered the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in neovascular eye disease; and demonstrated the therapeutic potential of VEGF inhibitors in neovascular eye disease.  Her current studies focus on the genetics of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), strategies for early intervention in AMD, and neuroprotective therapies for retinal disease.

Dr. Miller has authored more than 200 original research articles and nearly 80 book chapters, review articles, or editorials.  Dr. Miller is on the editorial board for the journals Ophthalmology and Ophthalmology Retina and an editor of several textbooks, including the 3^rd edition of Albert and Jakobiec’s Principles and Practice of Ophthalmology (Saunders). Dr. Miller is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Academia Ophthalmologica lnternationalis, and the Dowling Society, as well as a Gold Fellow of Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). Among her numerous honors, Dr. Miller delivered the 2012 Edward Jackson Lecture for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and was a co-recipient of the 2014 António Champalimaud Vision Award, the highest distinction in ophthalmology and visual science. In 2015, Dr. Miller became the first woman to receive the Mildred Weisenfeld Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).

http://www.asrs.org/annual-meeting/program-info/gertrude-d-pyron-award

Past RRF Pyron Award Recipients

2022   Mary Elizabeth Hartnett, MD

2021    Cynthia A. Toth, MD

2020    Mark S. Humayun, MD, PhD

2019     Joan M. O’Brien, MD

2018    Joan W. Miller, MD

2017    Paul A. Sieving, MD, PhD

2016    Donald J. D’Amico, MD

2015    Gary W. Abrams, MD

2014    Andrew P. Schachat, MD

2013    George A. Williams, MD

2012    Daniel F. Martin, MD

2011    Jean Bennett, MD, PhD and Albert Maguire, MD

2010    Julia Haller, MD

2009    C. Pat Wilkinson, MD

2008    Susan Bressler, MD,and Neil Bressler, MD

2007    Carmen Puliafito, MD

2006    Brooks McCuen, MD

2005    Mark Blumenkranz, MD

2004    Morton F. Goldberg, MD

2003    Lloyd Aiello, MD

2002    Michael Trese, MD

2001    Yaseo Tano, MD

2000    Gholan Peyman, MD

Helmerich Award for Outstanding Achievement in Retina Research

1999    Harry W. Flynn, MD

1998    Stanley Chang, MD

1997    Thomas M. Aaberg, MD

1996    Robert Watzke, MD

1995    George F. Hilton, MD

1992    Christina Enroth-Cugell, MD

1991    Albert Aguayo, FRSC

1990    Seymour Benzer, MD

1989    Torsten N. Wiesel, MD

1988    Alan L. Hodgkin, FRSC