Investing in the future

Originally published in the ARVO Foundation insert of ARVO News, Fall 2014

When C. Stephen Foster, MD, FARVO, and his wife, Frances, began thinking about philanthropy five years ago, several organizations were high on their list. The ARVO Foundation was among them. "It was on my radar because I had been attending the ARVO Annual Meeting for more than 40 years," said Foster.

As founder and president of the Ocular Immunology and Uveitis Foundation (OIUF), Foster began supporting the ARVO Foundation in 2009 with an OIUF Travel Grant to a first-year ophthalmology resident who presented a paper on ocular inflammatory disease at that year's Annual Meeting. Together with his wife, he also established the C. Stephen and Frances B. Foster Foundation Travel Grant, which is awarded to a researcher working in ocular immunology and ocular inflammation/uveitis.

It's clear that Foster has a "big passion" for helping young investigators focused on ocular immunity and inflammation.

"I saw a need for more research," said Foster. "This area is such an orphan; so much is unknown to the masses." He also wants to help fill the need for more specialists dedicated to ocular immunology.
"The older I get, the clearer it is to me that the future lies with the 25-year- olds," he says.

Foster puts great value on providing the early career scientists with the opportunity to present their work and have the experience of sharing it with the largest vision research community in the world. "Frances and I see this as a simply fabulous investment in the future, especially with grant money being what it is these days; giving to people at the beginning of their career means they will have another 40 years to pay it back and pay it forward in the world of ophthalmic research."