Joel S. Schuman

Joel S. Schuman, MD, FACS, Professor of Ophthalmology, the Kenneth L. Roper Endowed Chair, Vice Chair for Research Innovation and co-director of the Glaucoma Service at Wills Eye Hospital

Joel S. Schuman, MD, FACS is Professor of Ophthalmology, the Kenneth L. Roper Endowed Chair, Vice Chair for Research Innovation, co-director of the Glaucoma Service at Wills Eye Hospital, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Drexel University School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, Collaborative Community of Ophthalmic Imaging (CCOI) president, and American Glaucoma Society (AGS) Foundation advisory board chair. Prior to this he was the Elaine Langone Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Ophthalmology at NYU Langone Medical Center, NYU Grossman School of Medicine; Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Professor of Neural Science in the Center for Neural Science at NYU College of Arts and Sciences. He chaired the ophthalmology department at NYU Langone Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine 2016–2020, and was Vice Chair for Ophthalmology Research in the department 2020–2022. Prior to arriving at NYU in 2016, he was Distinguished Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology, Eye and Ear Foundation Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology, Director of UPMC Eye Center (2003-2016) and before that was at Tufts University 1991–2003, where he was Residency Director (1991-1999) and Glaucoma and Cataract Service Chief (1991-2003). In 1998 he became Professor of Ophthalmology, and Vice Chair in 2001.

Research

Dr. Schuman and his colleagues were first to identify a molecular marker for human glaucoma, published in Nature Medicine in 2001. Continuously funded by the National Eye Institute as a principal investigator since 1995, he is an inventor of optical coherence tomography (OCT), used world-wide for ocular diagnostics. Dr. Schuman has published more than 450 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles.

Joel Schuman, along with Eric Swanson, James Fujimoto, Carmen Puliafito, Charles Lin and David Huang, invented the optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology. This technology, allows a quick and noninvasive 3D map of the eye, in particular the retina. It is one of the tools available for early detection of eye diseases such as glaucoma, along with macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. More than 60,000 of these machines are used daily throughout the world.

Awards and nominations

In 2002 he received the Alcon Research Institute Award and the Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize, in 2006 the ARVO Translational Research Award, and in 2012 the Carnegie Science Center Award as well as sharing the Champalimaud Award (a 1 million Euro cash prize). He was elected to the American Ophthalmological Society in 2008. In 2011 Dr. Schuman was the Clinician-Scientist Lecturer of the American Glaucoma Society. In 2013 he gave the Robert N. Shaffer Lecture at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Annual Meeting and received the AAO Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 he became a Gold Fellow of ARVO and he received a Special Recognition Award from the AAO in 2015. He was elected to the American Association of Physicians and also received the Fight for Sight Physician/Scientist Award in 2016. In 2017 he received the Leslie Dana Gold Medal. In 2018 Dr. Schuman was the AGS Lecturer and received the Fight for Sight Alumni Achievement Award. In 2019 he was given the BrightFocus Scientific Impact Award, and in 2021 the Eye Foundation of America Robert Murphy Visionary Award. In 2022 he received the USC Keck Roski Eye Institute Laureate Award and the Pittsburgh Eye and Ear Foundation Muse Award. He is named in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Medical Sciences Education, America's Top Doctors and Best Doctors in America.

Biography

Schuman is a native of Roslyn, NY. He graduated from Columbia University (AB, 1980) and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine (MD, 1984). Following internship at New York's Beth Israel Medical Center (1985), he completed residency training at Medical College of Virginia (1988) and glaucoma fellowship at Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary (clinical 1989, research 1990), where he was a Heed fellow. After just over a year on the Harvard faculty, he moved to New England Medical Center, Tufts University to co-found New England Eye Center in 1991, where he was Residency Director and Glaucoma and Cataract Service Chief. In 1998 he became Professor of Ophthalmology, and Vice Chair in 2001. He is married and has three children. His wife, Carole, is a lawyer, and his children are Alexandra, in business, Eric, a filmmaker, and Ari, a physician.