Research

The Helen Keller Prize
Awards are important; they are public statements of our aspirations. The Helen Keller Laureates provide invaluable examples of roads well traveled, inspiring promising new researchers to choose their own paths more wisely. Therefore the Foundation considers the Helen Keller Prize Program to be among its most important efforts to end blindness.

The Foundation Board believes that vision research will advance in direct proportion to the public's awareness and understanding of research on eye disease and injury. With the establishment of the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research in May 1994, the Foundation dramatically began its efforts to promote public recognition of vision research.

The Helen Keller Prize has been embraced by the vision research community, a veritable army of 20,000 scientists and clinicians worldwide who labor to preserve the precious gift of sight for future generations. The Foundation believes that the Helen Keller Prize will ultimately become a powerful public symbol of their efforts.

Helen Keller Laureates are selected by an international panel of biomedical researchers and physicians. The Prize ceremony occurs at the annual convention of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), an international conclave that attracts more than 13,000 scientists and physicians. Keller Johnson, a great niece of Helen Keller, awards the prize to the Laureate.

Recipients of The Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research:
(Click each name below to read the recipient's biography.)

1994:	Arnall Patz, M.D. - Johns Hopkins University
1995:	Bernard Becker, M.D. - Washington University in St. Louis
1996:	David Hubel, M.D. - Harvard University
1996:	Torsten Wiesel, M.D. - Rockefeller University
1997:	Robert Machemer, M.D. - Duke University
1998:	Norman Ashton, CBE, FRS, D.Sc. - Institute of Ophthalmology, University of London
1999:	Lorenz Zimmerman, M.D. - Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
2000:	John E. Dowling, Ph.D. - Harvard University
2001:	Donald Gass, M.D. - Vanderbilt University
2002:	Anders Bill, M.D., Ph.D. - Uppsala University
2003:	David Maurice, Ph.D. - Columbia University
2004:	Alan Bird, M.D. - Institute of Ophthalmology, University of London
2005:	Alfred Sommer, M.D., M.H.S. - Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2006:	Judah Folkman, M.D. - Harvard Medical School; Children's Hospital Boston
2007	Elke Lütjen-Drecoll, M.D. - University of Erlangen Nurnberg
2007	Johannes W. Rohen, M.D. - University of Erlangen Nurnberg

To view the video of the 2007 Awards Ceremony for the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research press the button below.

The Helen Keller Prize Selection Committee:

CO-CHAIRMEN

Christopher A. Paterson, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Louisville School of Medicine
Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Past President, International Society of Eye Research
Past President, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology

Thom J. Zimmerman, M.D., Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor & Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology
University of Louisville School of Medicine
Louisville, Kentucky, USA

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

J. Bronwyn Bateman, M.D.
Professor of Ophthalmology, Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute
Denver Health Medical Center
University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado, USA
Past President, Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology

Carlos Belmonte, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Director, Institute of Neurosciences of Alicante
University Miguel Hernandez-CSIC
Alicante, Spain
Past President, International Society of Eye Research

Alan Bird, M.D.
Honorary Consultant, Moorfields Eye Hospital
Emeritus Professor, Institute of Ophthalmology
University College
London, England

Eve J. Higginbotham, M.D.
Dean and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs
Morehouse School of Medicine
Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Joe G. Hollyfield, Ph.D.
Director, FFB Research, Cole Eye Institute -i31
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Past President, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
Past President, International Society of Eye Research

Yoshiaki Kitazawa, M.D., Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor and Chairman, Gifu University
Gifu, Japan
Past President of Asia Oceanic Glaucoma Society
Past President, Japan Glaucoma Society
Past President, The International Glaucoma Society of the International Congress of Ophthalmology

Nicholas A. Delamere, Ph.D.
Professor and Head, Department of Physiology
University of Arizona College of Medicine
Tucson, Arizona, USA

Sheila K. West, Ph.D.
El-Maghraby Professor of Preventive Ophthalmology, Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology
Wilmer Eye Institute
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Past President, International Society of Geographic Epidemiology & Ophthalmology
Past President, ARVO