Christine A. Curcio PhD and Cynthia Owsley PhD have been jointly awarded the Proctor Medal for 2025, as announced by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) at the annual meeting this week in Seattle. The Proctor Medal was established in 1949 as a memorial to Dr. Francis I. Proctor, an ophthalmologist who conducted extensive research on the etiology and treatment of trachoma. This medal honors outstanding research in the basic or clinical sciences as applied to ophthalmology and represents the first ophthalmology-related award to honor non-clinicians in the field. Drs. Curcio and Owsley will present the Proctor Award Lecture at the 2025 ARVO Annual Meeting. They have worked together for over 25 years focusing on understanding associations between retinal structure and visual function in the transition from aging to intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This trajectory of AMD has been largely ignored in research yet is critical for understanding the prevention of vision loss in AMD. The Proctor Medal has been awarded jointly several times in the past; 2025 will be the first time for two women.
