ARVO awards and lectures

The 2005 keynote session, to be held in the Grand Floridian D in the convention center on Sunday, May 1, from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m., will feature two distinguished speakers: NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, who will speak on "NIH: Advancing science in the 21st century," and 2003 Nobel Laureate Peter Agre, MD, who will deliver a address titled "Aquaporin water channels-From atomic structure to clinical medicine."

A new feature of the keynote session this year is the ARVO/Pfizer Ophthalmics Translational Research Awards. These awards, presented for excellence in translational research, will go to Peng Tee Khaw, MD, PhD, of Moorfields Hospital, for his pioneering research in the molecular regulation of wound healing that has led to the development of potential new avenues of approach to wound modulation in glaucoma filtration surgery, and Gholam Peyman, MD, of Tulane University, for his translational research bringing to clinical application numerous developments, including LASIK and a photoablative inlay for refractive surgery. He also helped to develop a pressure controlled shunt for glaucoma and developed a vitrectomy system and an endolaser probe.

The keynote session also will include presentation of the ARVO Distinguished Service Awards. Sally Atherton, PhD, Medical College of Georgia; Joseph Besharse, PhD, Medical College of Wisconsin; Oliver Braddick, PhD, University of Oxford; Henry Edelhauser, PhD, Emory University; and Terri Trotter, Emory University, will be cited for their outstanding service. Ballroom B/C/D is the planned site of the basic/clinical science lecture, "Cellular pathways in photoreceptor neurodegeneration," cosponsored by the American Association of Anatomists, at 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

The Friedenwald Award and Lecture is slated for Tuesday, May 3, from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m. Ronald Klein, MD, MPH, and Barbara Klein, MD, MPH, from the University of Wisconsin, will receive the award and speak on "The epidemiology of eye disease: Glycemia to genetics." The Cogan Award and Lecture follows at 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. J. William Harbour, MD, from Washington University School of Medicine, will receive the award and deliver the following address: "Eye cancer: A unique insight into molecular oncogenesis." Both will take place in Ballroom B/C/D.