San Francisco, April 12 -- The Ophthalmology Hall of Fame was created by ASCRS in 1999 to honor pioneers like these with an ongoing celebration of their distinguished careers and contributions. The physicians selected for this honor were chosen by their peers — more than 30,000 ophthalmologists in the U.S. and abroad — from a ballot of 25 outstanding nominees.
Danièle S. Aron-Rosa, MD (b. 1934) developed the picosecond pulsed Nd:YAG laser for the treatment of posterior capsule opacification. Aron-Rosa performed the first Nd:YAG posterior capsulotomy in January 1979.
Joaquin Barraquer, MD (b. 1927) began informal medical training with his father at age 13. His early exposure to cataracts led to inventing the enzymatic zonulolysis technique that makes total or intracapsular extraction of the cataract considerably easier. A cornea surgery pioneer, educator, and director of the Barraquer Centre of Ophthalmology in Barcelona, Barraquer is known as a world leader in the development and use of the intraocular lens.
William F. Hoyt, MD (b. 1926), as a faculty member of the University of California, San Francisco, since 1958, he has developed a world-renowned unit in the field of neuro-ophthalmology at UCSF. Hoyt and Frank Walsh, MD co-authored a three-volume compendium, Clinical Neuro-Ophthalmology.
Norman S. Jaffe, MD (b. 1924) is best known for his work with intraocular lenses (IOLs). His interest in the IOL began in 1966 when he examined a patient whose lens had been implanted 10 years earlier. The health of the eye inspired Jaffe to go on with further implants. But despite successes, IOLs were met with a great deal of skepticism until Jaffe worked tirelessly to prove that IOLs were a vast improvement over past cataract surgical methods. He is the author of the landmark Cataract Surgery and It’s Complications, the most widely read book on cataracts and IOLs in the last half of the past century, among others.
Paul A. Chandler, MD (1897-1987) is best known as a noted researcher and author. His work included coauthorship of the text Glaucoma, which was the principal text on glaucoma for many years. Chandler lectured throughout the world and authored more than 70 articles, the majority on glaucoma. Highlights of Chandler’s accomplishments include his influence on the diagnosis and treatment of papillary block and malignant glaucoma.
Jules Stein, MD (1896-1981) founded Research to Prevent Blindness Inc. in 1960. This national health organization became a catalyst for eye research in the U.S., and funneled more than $170 million into eye research. Stein also founded the internationally recognized Jules Stein Eye Institute at the UCLA School of Medicine. In addition, Stein led an eight-year campaign that was mainly responsible for establishing the National Eye Institute as a separate entity in the National Institutes of Health.
