Select 2024 awards and honors

The accomplished faculty and trainees at the Byers Eye Institute were recognized with a long list of grants, awards, speaker invitations, new leadership opportunities and more during 2024. Here is a snapshot of just some of those accomplishments.

The Byers Eye Institute is home to 13 faculty named top doctors by Castle Connolly in 2024. 

From left to right: Andrea Kossler, MD, FACS; Theodore Leng, MD, FACS; Diana Do, MD; Steven Sanislo, MD; Eubee Koo, MD; G. Atma Vemulakonda, MD; Euna Koo, MD; Scott Lambert, MD; Darius Moshfeghi, MD; Kuldev Singh, MD, MPH; Edward Manche, MD; Ruwan Silva, MD, MPhil; and Quan Dong Nguyen, MD, MSc.

Resident Arthur Brant, MD, was awarded the Young Systems Leader Award by The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and was awarded a 2024 VitreoRetinal Surgery Foundation research award to support his research on macular and retinal disease.

Fellow Jared Sokol, MD, MBA, and resident Gabriel Velez, MD, PhD, were also awarded 2024 VitreoRetinal Surgery Foundation research awards to support their research on macular and retinal disease.

Charles DeBoer, MD, PhD, received the Machemer Foundation’s Robert Machemer MD and International Retinal Research Foundation Fellowships award for his innovative research in new devices for drug delivery.

Alfredo Dubra, PhD, is a co-investigator for a three-year project developing cellular-level vascular oculomics (CVO) technology to monitor systemic vascular health in real-time, which was awarded one of the first Venture Program Oculomics Initiative awards by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund Venture Program.

Lucie Guo, MD, PhD, was awarded the Ronald G. Michels Fellowship Award, one of the most prestigious awards for vitreoretinal surgery fellows in the United States.

M.E. Hartnett, MD, delivered a keynote speech at the Taiwan Macula Society Annual Meeting titled “Extending Peripheral Retinal Vascularization to Prevent ROP,” before also lecturing at the Department of Ophthalmology at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital titled “Regulating Angiogenesis in Development: Prevent Retinopathy of Prematurity.”

Andrea Kossler, MD, FACS, was awarded the Stanford Biodesign Faculty Fellowship (BFF) Extension Award and the Gabilan Fellowship Award.

Kossler also delivered multiple keynote lectures, including the inaugural Joseph Charles Flanagan Visiting Professor Lecture at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She also lectured at the International Thyroid Eye Disease Society and the International Congress of Oculoplastics, held in Brazil. Kossler was the co-chair for the inaugural INNOVATE TED International Expert Summit in Napa Valley, California.

Theodore Leng, MD, FACS, was not only named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor, but also a Castle Connolly Top Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Doctor.

Joyce Liao, MD, PhD, was named as inaugural Stanford Medicine Professorship in Ophthalmology.

Wendy Liu, MD, PhD, received the McCormick Faculty Award, which supports early-career faculty in their career development.

Vinit Mahajan, MD, PhD, spoke at the National Eye Institute council meeting, Brightfocus Foundation’s Age-Related Macular Degeneration-Alzheimers meeting in Portugal, and the National Institute of Health Liquid Biopsy meeting. He also received Research to Prevent Blindness’ Age-Related Macular Degeneration Catalyst award.

Michael Mbagwu, MD, David Myung, MD, PhD, and David Buickians received the High Impact Technology (HIT) Fund award granted by Stanford University’s Office of Technology and Licensing.

Prithvi Mruthyunjaya, MD, MHS, was named as the inaugural Alan Adler Professor of Ophthalmology.

Residents Arnav Moudgil, MD, PhD, and Sahil Shah, MD, PhD, received awards from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation. Moudgil received the Career Starter Grant for his project “3D Genome Folding and Gene Regulation of Otx2 in Retinal Development.” Shah was awarded a grant for his research entitled “Role of Kinesin Cargo and Adapter Specificity in Retinal Dystrophies.”

Quan Dong Nguyen, MD, MSc, was awarded the 2023 Benjamin J. Cory Award by the Santa Clara County Medical Association.

Nguyen and his team also organized two highly successful conferences with attendees and subject matter experts from around the country, including the annual Bay Area Young Investigator’s Conference (BYIRC) and the inaugural Symposium on Immunity,Immunology, and Ocular Inflammation.

Carolyn Pan, MD, (fourth from left) was awarded the 2024 Women in Ophthalmology Educator’s Award. The award recognizes her consistently exceptionally positive influence on trainees, producing expertly trained physicians.

Daniel Ting, MD, PhD, adjunct associate professor of ophthalmology, was awarded the Young Scientist Award 2024 by the President’s Science and Technology Awards (PSTA), the top honor for research scientists and engineers in Singapore, for his “significant contributions to AI in ophthalmology and healthcare.”

Ting was also named in the inaugural H2O AI 100 list for his work as a top thought leader in artificial intelligence and to the 2024 The Ophthalmologist Power List.