USC Roski Eye Institute marks golden anniversary with forward-looking symposium

At its annual symposium, the USC Roski Eye Institute observed a 50-year legacy of preserving, protecting and restoring sight with a program focused on the future.

Held June 13, 2026, at the Aresty Conference Center on the USC Health Sciences Campus, the event highlighted research aiming to enhance the detection of eye diseases using artificial intelligence and maps of the retina, alongside emerging science addressing macular degeneration, glaucoma, myopia and more. Faculty, alumni and guests also engaged with presentations delving into the patient-focused mission behind the medicine.

“There’s so much to celebrate about the tradition of clinical and scientific excellence that USC ophthalmologists have established since 1976,” said USC Roski Eye Institute co-director J. Martin Heur, MD, PhD, the Grace and Emery Beardsley Professor of Ophthalmology and chair of ophthalmology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “However, with the creativity and dedication of our faculty and staff, the best is yet to come. We built this year’s symposium around the exciting advances they are cultivating and the values that animate their work.”

In addition to the slate of presentations and panels, three distinguished leaders in the field were honored:

• Michael Chiang, MD, MA, director of the National Eye Institute, received the 2026 Laureate Award. This is the institute’s highest individual honor, recognizing academic achievements in the preservation, protection and restoration of vision.
• SriniVas Sadda, MD, a UCLA professor of ophthalmology and the Doheny Eye Institute’s director of artificial intelligence and imaging research, received the 2026 Narsing A. Rao MD Endowed Lecture Award.
• Tamara Fountain, MD, professor of ophthalmology at Rush University, received the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award.

The symposium’s opening session, “Modern Trends in Clinical and Surgical Eye Care,” included talks about new innovations in age-related macular degeneration and retina care, cataract and refractive surgery, myopia management, and glaucoma care and surgery.

“Precision Ophthalmology: Innovative Approaches to Eye Disease” was the title of the second session, which featured updates on advanced molecular mapping of the aging human retina, AI for detecting glaucoma, and AI for identifying pediatric optic nerve disease from images of the back of the eye.

In the closing session, “Values Driving Medicine: Success Beyond the Eye Lane,” USC ophthalmologists gave presentations titled “Identifying Mission and Purpose in Healthcare” and “Finding Your Calling in Academic Medicine.”

The symposium’s roster of presenters included guests Jiun Do, MD, PhD, a physician specialist in glaucoma at Los Angeles General Medical Center; Billy Pan, MD, a cataract and glaucoma specialist at the Beverly Hills Institute of Ophthalmology; and Dagny Zhu, MD, medical director and partner of NVISION Eye Centers.

Speakers from USC Roski Eye Institute and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles included Jesse Berry, MD; Kyle Bolo, MD; David Boyer, MD; Melinda Chang, MD, PhD; Lauren Daskivich, MD, MSHS; J. Martin Heur, MD, PhD; Mark Humayun, MD, PhD; Sun Young Lee, MD, PhD; Aaron Nagiel, MD, PhD; Angeline Nguyen, MD; Annie Nguyen, MD; Narsing Rao, MD; Lernik Torossian, OD; and Brian Toy, MD.

As USC Roski Eye Institute enters its next half-century, the symposium reflected its continued commitment to shaping the future of vision care.