The 16th Annual OU Vision Workshop was held on September 7-8, 2023. We were honored to welcome Dr. Steven J. Fliesler, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Meyer H. Riwchun Endowed Chair Professor, Vice Chair, and Director of Research of the Department of Ophthalmology at SUNY Buffalo, as our 7th Anderson Keynote Lecturer. His seminar, titled The Long and Winding Road: Impact of Mevalonate Pathway Defects on Retinal Structure and Function, was held in the 5th floor Tullos Coston Lecture Hall at the Dean McGee Eye Institute at 4:00 pm on Thursday September 7th. Eighteen young vision researchers, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research technicians, and medical students, presented their research all day on Friday September 8th. The presentations were followed by Dr. Fliesler's career development lecture titled Advice for the Emerging Early-Stage Vision Scientists: Do THIS, Not THAT!.
A celebratory awards dinner followed on Friday evening at The Lume in OKC. Graduate student Katie Scholand from Dr. Cintia de Paiva's lab at Baylor won the Anderson Award for Best Presentation, while Yvonne Adu-Agyeiwaah, a graduate student from Dr. Maria Grant's lab at the University of Alabama Birmingham, won the Dr. Wei Cao Innovation Award. Becca Wells, a graduate student from Dr. Kevin Fuller's lab at OUHSC won Honorable Mention. Katie also won the abstract book cover photo competition, while Becca won the JVRC Award. What a great day for everyone!
A special THANK YOU! to our Organizing Committee: Drs. Yan Chen, Kevin Fuller, and Raju Rajala co-chaired the workshop this year, and trainees Drs. Jorge Lightfoot, Neeraj Chauhan, Katarzyna Zyla-Jackson, Eric Ma, and graduate students Luis Longoria-Gonzalez and Becca Wells. Special thanks goes to Melody Marcum, DMEI Director of External Relations and Development, our Chair, Dr. Mike Siatkowski, and the DMEI for its support.
Stay tuned for information about the 17th Annual OU Vision Workshop in Fall 2024.