ARVO/Alcon Keynote Series

Opening Keynote

Sunday, April 23, 10:15 -11:45am CDT

Emerging imaging technologies to study subcellular architecture, dynamics, and function

Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, PhD
Senior Group Leader
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Janelia Research Campus

Lippincott-Schwartz has pioneered the use of green fluorescent protein technology for quantitative analysis and modelling of intracellular protein traffic and organelle dynamics in live cells and embryos. Her innovative techniques to label, image, quantify and model specific live cell protein populations and track their fate have provided vital tools used throughout the research community. Her own findings using these techniques have reshaped thinking about the biogenesis, function, targeting, and maintenance of various subcellular organelles and macromolecular complexes and their crosstalk with regulators of the cell cycle, metabolism, aging, and cell fate determination.

She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Arts and Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organization. She is also a Fellow of The Biophysical Society, The Royal Microscopical Society and The American Society of Cell Biology. Her awards include the E.B. Wilson Medal of the American Society of Cell Biology, the Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Van Deenen Medal, the Keith Porter Award of the American Society of Cell Biology, the Feodor Lynen Medal, and the Feulgen Prize of the Society of Histochemistry.

Lippincott-Schwartz co-authored the textbook, Cell Biology, with Tom Pollard and Bill Earnshaw. She also served as president of the American Society of Cell Biology. She attended Swarthmore College, received her MS from Stanford University, and obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University.

Closing Keynote

Thursday, April 27, 4 - 5:15pm CDT

The beauty of sensory diversity

Ivan R. Schwab, MD, FACS
Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology
University of California, Davis

Sensory information fills our environment, yet we sample only a portion of it. We rely on vision as our primary sense, but other senses contribute to our interpretation and understanding of the world around us. Other animals use some of the same mechanisms as we use to interpret the world around them but many use alternative mechanisms that fulfill the needs of their niche. Most of the alternate mechanisms combine with visual pathways as vision remains important in most animals. To understand why visual pathways are so important to these alternate sensory mechanisms, we need to understand the specialized niche of the animal and its evolution. 

During his career Schwab has engaged in research with defense peptides and bioengineered tissues, including silk and the ocular surface. The latter portion of his career has been focused on comparative ocular physiology and optics with an emphasis on the evolution of eyes.

Schwab is the author of the highly acclaimed text, Evolution’s Witness: How Eyes Evolved, published in Nov. 2011. He has over 245 articles in peer reviewed journals as well as numerous chapters, abstracts and five textbooks. He has served on the editorial boards of EyeNet, the British Journal of Ophthalmology, the journals Cornea and Ophthalmology, and the PanAmerican journal.

Schwab is active in several professional societies. He has served in leadership positions in the Ocular Microbiology and Immunology Group, the Cornea Society, and is an emeritus board director on the American Board of Ophthalmology. He has received numerous teaching awards within his department and nationally, as well as been cited as a Distinguished Alumnus of West Virginia University. In 2006, he won the IgNobel for Ornithology

Schwab graduated summa cum laude from West Virginia University (WVU) with a bachelor's degree from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. He also received his medical degree from WVU. After completing his residency at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and two fellowships, he returned in 1982 as a faculty member in the School of Medicine. During his tenure at WVU, Schwab served as chief of staff for the WVU Medical Center Hospital and was a consultant to WHO. In 1989, he moved to the University of California, Davis, and has been on its faculty since then. 

 Sponsor

The ARVO/Alcon Keynote Series is sponsored by the ARVO Foundation through the generous support of Alcon.