HOUSTON— Alice R. McPherson, MD, professor of ophthalmology at Baylor College of Medicine and founder of the Retina Research Foundation, has been named this year’s recipient of the Gonin Medal from the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO). Awarded every four years to an ophthalmologist who is notable for his or her outstanding work or research, the medal was established in 1937 by the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and the Swiss Ophthalmological Society in memory of Jules Gonin, MD, from Switzerland, considered the father of retina surgery.

The medal will be presented by Bruce E. Spivey, MD, MS, MEd, president of the ICO, at the World Ophthalmology Congress of the ICO  in Tokyo on April 2, 2014. She already received the Gonin Medal diploma on Feb. 13, 2014 at the Jules Gonin Eye Hospital in Lausanne, Switzlerland, where she also delivered a special lecture on “The Retina Specialty After Gonin: Personal Recollections and Contributions.”

An accomplished teacher, scholar, leader and pioneer dedicated to the study and treatment of diseases of the retina, McPherson founded the Retina Research Foundation in 1969 to become one of the nation’s leading eye research organizations, dedicated to promoting the understanding, prevention and treatment of retinal diseases. A Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the International College of Surgeons, McPherson has made significant contributions to advance new treatment of retinal disease.

For these contributions, McPherson has been honored by numerous institutions and organizations, including her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin (where she received her undergraduate and medical degrees and took her ophthalmology residency), Harvard Medical School, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Pan American Association of Ophthalmology.  She also completed a retina fellowship with Charles L. Schepens, MD, at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.