Physician-Scientist Wins Kirwan Memorial Award
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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Apr. 23, 2008) − University of Kentucky
ophthalmologist Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati will
receive the Albert D. and Elizabeth H. Kirwan Memorial Prize at the university's 141st
Commencement at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 4, 2008.
The annual award recognizes a full-time faculty member for outstanding contributions to original research or creative scholarship. The award carries a $5,000 cash prize and was named in honor of Albert D. Kirwan, president of UK from 1968 to 1969, and Elizabeth, his wife.
Ambati is professor of physiology and professor and vice-chair of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in the UK College of Medicine. He holds the Dr. E. Vernon Smith & Eloise C. Smith Endowed Chair in Macular Degeneration Research. An international authority on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and on angiogenesis, Ambati’s laboratory has published landmark papers in Nature, Nature Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ambati was the first ophthalmologist to win the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research and only the third ophthalmologist ever to be elected to The American Society for Clinical Investigation. He has also won awards from the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology, Research to Prevent Blindness, The Foundation Fighting Blindness, The American Geriatrics Society and the New England Ophthalmological Society. Ambati also serves on the Editorial Board of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science and is listed on the Best Doctors in America list.
The annual award recognizes a full-time faculty member for outstanding contributions to original research or creative scholarship. The award carries a $5,000 cash prize and was named in honor of Albert D. Kirwan, president of UK from 1968 to 1969, and Elizabeth, his wife.
Ambati is professor of physiology and professor and vice-chair of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in the UK College of Medicine. He holds the Dr. E. Vernon Smith & Eloise C. Smith Endowed Chair in Macular Degeneration Research. An international authority on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and on angiogenesis, Ambati’s laboratory has published landmark papers in Nature, Nature Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ambati was the first ophthalmologist to win the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research and only the third ophthalmologist ever to be elected to The American Society for Clinical Investigation. He has also won awards from the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology, Research to Prevent Blindness, The Foundation Fighting Blindness, The American Geriatrics Society and the New England Ophthalmological Society. Ambati also serves on the Editorial Board of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science and is listed on the Best Doctors in America list.