The Lighthouse International Pisart Vision Award is a significant U.S. prize honoring an individual or individuals who have made an extraordinary contribution to the prevention, cure, or treatment of severe vision impairment or blindness.
The Pisart Vision Award was established in 1981 and is partially funded through a bequest of Mme. Georgette Pisart, a longtime Lighthouse volunteer. This prestigious award carries a prize of $30,000 and a replica of the Pisart sculpture, originally designed by artist Gary Kleiman to represent the rods and cones of the eye.
Eligibility:
Anyone who has made a noteworthy contribution to preventing and treating vision impairment is eligible for nomination. Candidates may be from any field that seeks to ameliorate blindness or to enhance functional vision, including, but not limited to, basic scientific research, engineering, medicine, optometry, rehabilitation and service delivery. Said contribution may take the form of a new investigation, invention, or noteworthy finding, or it may represent accomplishments of contemporary relevance made over time.
Nominators and candidates may reside in, or be citizens of, any country. Nominations may not be made by a candidate or family member.
Selection Criteria:
The individual's accomplishment(s) should have implications beyond his/her immediate locale. If the achievement is an invention or research finding, it should represent an extraordinary advance in the field. The work should be of an enduring nature. If the nomination is for leadership, it should demonstrate that the nominee's example has inspired others, or continues to do so.
Nominations:
A formal Lighthouse International Pisart Vision Award nomination must include the following:
- The Nomination Statement: As the primary document used by the selection committee, the statement must explain how the candidate and his/her contributions meet the award criteria. The nomination statement will also serve as the primary source for information about the winner's achievement(s) for community and public outreach efforts. Although there is no prescribed form, the nomination must be double-spaced and no longer than five pages.
- Nominee Information: The statement must also include the nominee's current address and occupation, and complete information about education and professional experience. Additional pertinent materials and a CV may be attached.
- References: The names of three people, who are well acquainted with the nominee's work and who may be contacted for information, must be submitted, along with their complete titles, addresses and phone numbers. Written endorsements from these people are not required but may be appended.
Deadline:
All nominations must be received by May 29, 2012 and e-mailed to pisartaward@lighthouse.org in a pdf file.
The nomination will be reviewed by an independent panel of judges who are leaders in various disciplines in the vision field.
Dr. Gregory S. Hageman, one of the world’s most accomplished researchers in the field of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), was the recipient of the 2011 Pisart Vision Award from Lighthouse International. Dr. Hageman is the professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Utah and director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the John A. Moran Eye Center. He has spent the past two decades focusing his research on AMD. He has garnered contagious funding from the National Eye Institute/National Institutes of Health over the past 23 years and has made significant advances in AMD research.
Previous recipients of the Pisart Vision Award are Lloyd M. Aiello, MD; Daniel M. Albert, MD; Professor Norman Ashton, CBE, FRS; Ian L. Bailey, O.D., MS, FAAO; Eliot L. Berson, MD; David G. Cogan, MD; Jay M. Enoch, Ph.D; Eleanor E. Faye, MD; Stuart L. Fine, MD; Charles D. Kelman, MD; Carl Kupfer, MD; Alan M. Laties, MD; Gordon E. Legge, Ph.D; Robert Machemer, MD; Robert W. Massof, Ph.D; A. Edward Maumenee, MD; Arnall Patz, MD; Eli Peli, M.Sc., O.D.; Gullapalli N. Rao, MD; Floyd Ratliff, Ph.D; Dr. Alfredo Arrigo Sadun, MD, Ph.D; Charles L. Schepens, MD; Paul A. Sieving, MD; Louise L. Sloan, Ph.D; Davida Y. Teller, Ph.D; Govindappa Venkataswamy, MD; Mildred Weisenfeld; John S. Werner, Ph.D; Sir John Wilson, CBE; Lawrence A. Yannuzzi, MD; Lorenz E. Zimmerman, MD.
For more information contact Kelly Boyle at (212) 821-9428 or kboyle@lighthouse.org.
