Select 2023 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 2023. Here is a snapshot of just some of those accomplishments.

The Byers Eye Institute is home to 10 faculty named top doctors by Castle Connolly in 2023. 

(Left to right) Andrea Kossler, MD, FACS; Theodore Leng, MD, FACS; Diana Do, MD; Steven Sanislo, MD; Ruwan Silva, MD, MPhil; Quan Dong Nguyen, MD, MSc; Kuldev Singh, MD, MPH; Edward Manche, MD; Darius Moshfeghi, MD; and Scott Lambert, MD. 

Arthur Brant, MD, was awarded the Rosenkranz Prize from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Health Policy to further his work to eliminate blindness from sickle cell disease in West Africa. 

Brant is also the lead investigator on a project awarded a Stanford Global Health Seed Grant to roll out a screening and treatment program to preserve sight for diabetic patients globally, starting in Ghana. Prithvi Mruthyunjaya, MD, MHS, and Geoffrey Tabin, MD, are also on the research team. 

Prithvi Mruthyunjaya, MD, MHS, was awarded the prestigious Crystal Apple Award by the American Society of Retina Specialists in recognition of his devotion to the education and professional development of young vitreoretinal specialists.

Mruthyunjaya was also an honored speaker on multiple occasions, delivering the 2023 Truhlsen Eye Institute Distinguished Lecture at the University of Nebraska; the Joseph E. Kolowitz Memorial Lecture in Ophthalmology at Wilmer Institute at Johns Hopkins, and the F. Phinizy Calhoun Jr. Lecture in Ophthalmology at the Southeastern Ocular Pathology Symposium at Emory Eye Center. 

Wendy Liu, MD, PhD, was awarded a National Eye Institute (NEI) K08 grant for her project entitled “The Role of Mechanosensitive Ion Channels in Glaucoma.”

Liu also received the Shaffer Grant from the Glaucoma Research Foundation, and a selective E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation for the Blind research grant.

David Myung, MD, PhD, received the Career Advancement Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, and the Innovation Accelerator Pilot Award from the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. He, Michael Mbagwu, MD, and David Buickians received a High Impact Technology Award from the Stanford Office of Technology Licensing.

Myung also led the annual Ophthalmic Innovation Symposium, a part of the Bay Area Ophthalmology Course, and co-organized the 2023 Collaborative Community on Ophthalmic Imaging (CCOI) Annual Meeting along with Mark Blumenkranz, MD, MMS.

Kuldev Singh, MD, MPH, was named to The Ophthalmologist Power List in 2023 as a physician who has demonstrated a decade of excellence and impact in ophthalmology.

Sophia Wang, MD, MS, received the 2023 American Glaucoma Society 'Young Clinician Scientists' award.

Quan Dong Nguyen, MD, MSc, chaired the Faculty Advisory Committee for the highly successful and growing annual Byers Young Investigators Research Conference.  

Scott Lambert, MD, was the distinguished speaker to give the Frank D. Costenbader Lecture at the annual meeting of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology in New York City in April 2023.  

Andrea Lora Kossler, MD, FACS, received the Stanford Biodesign Faculty Fellowship (BFF), the Gabilan Fellowship Award, and the American Society of Oculoplastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS) Foundation Research Award. 

Kossler also was appointed to the Executive Board for the North American Society of Academic Orbital Surgeons (NASAOS) and served as the organization’s conference chair for the NASAOS Annual Conference Committee. Kossler co-chaired the Oculoplastic Section for the Sonoma Eye Meeting and served on the Women In Ophthalmology Board of Directors. 

Mary Elizabeth (M.E.) Hartnett, MD, was named the first Michael F. Marmor, MD, Professor of Retinal Science and Diseases at the Byers Eye Institute. She also served as the Constance E. West, MD, lecturer at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the Bradley R. Straatsma Lecturer at the UCLA Stein Eye Institute. 

Hartnett served on the National Advisory Eye Council of NIH, the Scientific Advisory Board for the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, and the American Ophthalmologic Society Council. She chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Macula Society and the Scientific Advisory Board for the Jack McGovern Coats’ Disease Foundation. In September, she directed the International Advances in Pediatric Retina meeting. 

Hartnett also received a Research to Prevent Blindness and American Academy of Ophthalmology Award for IRIS Registry Research and an R34 grant. She served as a senior editor for Adler’s 12th edition of "Physiology of the Eye." 

Y. Joyce Liao, MD, PhD, was awarded the Low Vision Research Award from Research to Prevent Blindness and the Lions Clubs International Foundation. 

Liao also led the Fourth Annual Optic Disc Drusen Conference, attracting over 300 people from 35 countries.

Julian Wolf, MD, MS; Brian Soetikno, MD, PhD; and Ditte Rasmussen received the VitreoRetinal Surgery Foundation Research Award, aimed at supporting early-stage investigators working on research projects in macular and retinal disease.