Oberdorfer Award in Low Vision Research

The Oberdorfer Award in Low Vision Research was created in 2012 in collaboration with the ARVO Foundation for Eye Research with support from Lighthouse Guild. The award recognizes an individual for his or her role in furthering low vision research and rehabilitation. It was inspired by the seminal contributions of Michael D. Oberdorfer, PhD, in support of low vision research.

2025 Oberdorfer Award Recipient: Jacque Duncan, MD, FARVO

Jacque Duncan, MD, FARVO , is chair and distinguished professor at the Department of Ophthalmology, University of California. She has expertise in the diagnosis and management of patients with retinal degenerations including age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, cone-rod dystrophy and Stargardt disease. She also has a strong interest in developing imaging and monitoring technologies to better evaluate the progress of disease and the efficacy of emerging therapies. Duncan serves as chair of the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) Scientific Advisory Board and co-chairs the FFB Clinical Consortium Executive Committee. She worked with FFB Leadership to launch the Consortium, which has over 48 clinical centers and more than 160 investigators with expertise in the care and study of patients with inherited retinal degenerations. Duncan, along with vision scientists Austin Roorda, PhD, FARVO and Joe Carroll, PhD, FARVO, is using adaptive optics to study vision cells in patients with genetic changes that cause them to lose their vision.

About the Oberdorfer Award

Award recipients present a lecture at the ARVO Annual Meeting and receive a cash award.

Nomination Process

There is no application process for the Oberdorfer Award in Low Vision. Recipients are selected by the ARVO Low Vision Cross-Sectional Group in recognition of their roles in furthering low-vision research.

Questions? Call us. Ms. Fernanda Garcia-Peña, Director of Research Operations at 212-769-7833 .

Past Oberdorfer Award Recipients