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 |
| 2008 |
Joram Piatigorsky, Ph.D. - National Eye Institute |
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
Nicholas A. Delamere, Ph.D.
Professor and Head, Department of Physiology
University of Arizona College of Medicine
Tucson, Arizona, USA
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.
Llura and Gordon Gund Professor of Ophthalmology Research
Cole Eye Institute
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine,
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Past President, International Society for Eye Research
Past President, ARVO
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
Ronald E. Smith, M.D.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology
University of Southern California School of Medicine
Doheny Eye Institute
Los Angeles, California, USA
Past President, American Academy of Ophthalmology
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
