Featured Speakers
Snell Memorial Lecturer, Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD
Dr. Apte is the Paul A. Cibis Distinguished Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, where he serves as the Director of Translational Research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and is a Professor in the Department of Developmental Biology and Medicine. Dr. Apte is a vitreoretinal surgeon and clinician scientist. His basic research is focused on inflammation, aging, neurodegeneration, and angiogenesis. His clinical research spans the translational spectrum from drug discovery and development to clinical trials. Dr. Apte has published extensively in basic and clinical peer-reviewed journals and has participated as a principal investigator in numerous clinical trials.
Dr. Apte has won numerous awards, honors, and educational scholarships. His research has been published in high impact journals including Nature, Cell, Cell Metabolism, the JCI, Nature Communications, PLoS Medicine, PNAS, among others. He teaches and lectures extensively as a mentor at Washington University, St. Louis and through participation at academic conferences throughout the world. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society of Retina Specialists, and the Association for Research in Visual Ophthalmology
Frederick Dushay, MD, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Agnes Wong, MD
Dr. Wong is currently Professor of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto, where she also held the John and Melinda Thompson Chair in Vision Neurosciences. She is a staff Ophthalmologist at The Hospital For Sick Children, having served as the Ophthalmologist-in-Chief from 2013-2017. Dr. Wong is also a senior scientist at both The Hospital For Sick Children and the Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. Wong is a clinician-scientist and one of a handful of clinicians in the world who dedicate their clinical practice to pediatric Neuro-Ophthalmology and strabismus. Her research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms of different forms of strabismus, abnormal eye movements, and amblyopia. More recently, Dr. Wong has become interested in vision screening, as well as developing a novel chromatic pupillometry technique as a new clinical and scientific tool to investigate and monitor various diseases.
Dr. Wong maintains an active clinical practice, specializing in Neuro-Ophthalmology and Strabismus. Neuro-ophthalmology deals with neurologic disorders of the visual system. Despite her busy research and clinical activities, Dr. Wong also dedicates herself to the training and mentoring of future generations of physicians and scientists. She is a much sought-after speaker who has delivered over 150 invited lectures around the globe. She has received numerous prestigious teaching awards at the University of Toronto, as well as an Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology in recognition of her contribution to continued ophthalmic education.
Ross Debates in Ophthalmology Speakers
Robert Fechtner, MD is Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology at SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York. He specializes in diagnosis and medical and surgical treatment of glaucoma. His research interests include glaucoma pharmacology, diagnostic technology and minimally invasive glaucoma surgery. He has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles, textbook chapters and, research abstracts and lectures throughout North America.
He received both an undergraduate degree in biosciences and his medical degree from the University of Michigan. After graduating from medical school, he completed two research fellowships in glaucoma: the first was at Tufts new England Medical Center, followed by another at Montefiore Medical Center. He then completed his ophthalmology residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and continued his training at the University of California, San Diego, pursuing a medical and surgical fellowship in glaucoma. He then pursued a career in academic medicine, including rising to the rank of professor and director of the glaucoma division at Rutgers University before accepting his current position as department chair at SUNY Upstate medical University
Sandra Sieminiski, MD, is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, the Director of the Glaucoma Chair and Clinical Vice Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Buffalo. Her research interests include exfoliative glaucoma, traumatic glaucoma, and laser therapy in glaucoma with her work spanning academic and clinical disciplines. This includes more than two dozen peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and abstracts. She also has a keen interest in ophthalmic and medical education, serving as the Clerkship Director for Ophthalmology at the Jacobs School of Medicine
She completed her undergraduate education Brown University and went on to pursue her medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh. She then traveled to Georgetown University to complete her ophthalmology training and received fellowship training in glaucoma at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. She is active as a journal reviewer, mentor, and holds several executive roles with the American Glaucoma Society and with the Glaucoma Research Foundation.