Up Close and Personal with 2007 Award Winners

Margaret A. Chang, MD, MS

Margaret Chang graduated summa cum laude in piano performance from the University of Washington at age 18. She received her MD and MS in biostatistics from Columbia University, where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. She went on to the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins for both residency and fellowship, where she was awarded the Heed and Michels fellowships.

Margaret is a partner at Retinal Consultants of Sacramento, and is the principal investigator on multiple clinical trials.

When not busy at the office, Margaret bribes her family by perfecting the art of sourdough bread and French patisserie.

Stephen J. Kim, MD

Dr. Stephen Jae Kim joined the Vanderbilt Eye Institute in 2008 and was promoted to full Professor of Ophthalmology in 2018. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and spent a year in the Laboratory of Experimental Immunology at the NEI in Bethesda MD as a Howard Hughes sponsored research fellow. He then returned to Johns Hopkins to continue his ophthalmology training at the Wilmer Eye Institute and then completed a 1-year fellowship in uveitis at Johns Hopkins and a 2-year medical and surgical retinal fellowship at Emory University. Dr. Kim currently is Head of the Retina Division and the Vitreoretinal Fellowship Program Director. His lab focuses on inflammatory pathways in retinal diseases.

Szilárd Kiss, MD

I received an undergraduate degree with honors from Columbia College, medical school training at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons and completed an ophthalmology residency and surgical vitreoretinal fellowship at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, where I was selected by the faculty to serve as the Chief Retina Fellow. My research career started as an undergraduate at Columbia College where, in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Defense, I evaluated the implications of microgravity on early developmental patterning with scientific experiments launched on the space shuttle Discovery (STS-70) and the space shuttle Columbia (STS-78). I am currently the Associate Dean of Clinical Compliance, Chair of the General Faculty Council, Vice Chair of Research, Vice Chair of Compliance, Chief of the Retina Service, Director of Teleophthalmology, and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College. Currently, my clinical and translational research efforts focus on four broad areas: ocular gene and cellular therapy, novel therapeutic targets for ocular neovascularization, complex vitreoretinal surgical techniques, and retinal imaging. I have participated as a principal investigator in over three-dozen prospective clinical trials and laboratory investigations. I have authored over 270 scientific publications, given nearly 250 invited lectureships worldwide, and serve on the Editorial Board and as a scientific reviewer to a number of major journals. In addition to my scientific efforts, I have garnered a reputation as a world renowned medical and surgical vitreoretinal specialist; my clinical practice draws patients from all regions of the world. For my academic and clinical work, I have won numerous academic and scientific awards including the Schepens Eye Research Institute Joint Clinical Research Center Pilot Project Grant, the Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Fellowship Award, the Ronald G. Michels Foundation Fellowship Award, the Paul Kayser International Fellowship Award, American Society of Retina Specialists Rhett Buckler Award, and the Research to Prevent Blindness Physician-Scientist Award. For my contributions to ophthalmology, I have received the Honor and Senior Honor Awards from the American Society of Retina Specialists and the Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. I was also among a select group of retina specialists worldwide (and the youngest) to be elected by his peers as a Charter Member of the Retina Hall of Fame. I have also been named to several regional, national and international Top Doctors lists, including The Ophthalmologist Power List Top 40 Under 40 Ophthalmologist Worldwide, OSN Retina 150 Leading Innovators in Surgical and Medical Retina, Castle Connolly's Top Reginal Doctors, and New York Super Doctors.