Endowed chairs for eye institute
appointed
The Storm
Eye Institute (SEI) has appointed Craig E. Crosson, Ph. D., Gene R.
Howard, M.D., and Kerry D. Solomon, M.D., to endowed chairs in
ophthalmology. 
From left are Dr.
M. Edward Wilson (SEI director); Karl E Novak, Esq. (chairman, SEI
board of directors); Dr. Craig E Cross, (vice chair for research, Storm
Eye Institute and recipient of Pawek-Vallotton Endowed Chair of
Ophthalmology); Dr. Kerry D Solomon, (director of Magill Vision Center
and recipient of Arturo and Holly Melosi Endowed Chair of
Ophthalmology); Dr. Gene R Howard, (recipient of Stanley H. and
Theordora L. Feldberg Chair of Ophthalmology); Dr. Raymond S.
Greenberg, MUSC president; Dr. James B Edwards (MUSC President Emeritus)Solomon, a professor of ophthalmology and member of the MUSC faculty since 1993, has been appointed to the Arturo and Holly Melosi chair in ophthalmology. He serves as medical director of the Magill Vision Center, director of the Magill Research Center and director of the Cornea Service at the Storm Eye Institute. He received his medical degree from the University of Vermont School of Medicine, completed his medical internship at Yale University and a fellowship at Johns Hopkins for specialty training in advanced surgical techniques for cataract and refractive surgery and corneal transplantation.
An internationally recognized leader in the areas of cataract and refractive surgery and intraocular lens implantation, Solomon routinely speaks at both national and international meetings and hospitals, and has presented more than 500 lectures and live surgical demonstrations worldwide. He has written more than 170 publications and has been featured in television specials including PBS’s “Cataract Surgery” as part of the “Healthy Body, Healthy Mind” series, which currently is airing across the United States and in more than 140 countries worldwide.
A recognized leader in glaucoma research, Crosson serves as the vice-chairman for research at SEI and has been appointed to the Pawek-Vallotton chair in ophthalmology. Under his leadership, the institute was able to reach top 10 status nationally as a research institution based on National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Crosson received his doctorate from Colorado State University and completed his postdoctoral work at the Louisiana State University Eye Center in New Orleans. Crosson holds five patents and has had research continuously funded by the NIH for 15 years. He is an internationally recognized glaucoma researcher. A permanent member of the NIH Anterior Eye Disease Study Section, Crosson is currently the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
Appointed to the Stanley H. and Theodora L. Feldberg chair in ophthalmology, Howard is a professor of ophthalmology and attending physician at MUSC, and additionally serves as consulting staff to the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center. He completed a masters in public health, his medical degree, internship in internal medicine and research fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. After completing a residency in ophthalmology at the University of Illinois in Chicago, Howard completed a fellowship in ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery and orbital oncology at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Howard is internationally recognized for reconstructive surgery in the United States and for innovation in the treatment of blinding diseases, such as trachoma, in the developing world.
Locally, Howard serves as a delegate to the South Carolina Medical Association and is a past-president of the Charleston Ophthalmological Society. He is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, International Society of Dacryology and Dry Eye, South Carolina Ophthalmological Society, and Charleston County Medical Society.
“Holding an endowed chair is a high honor reserved for those few professors of research or innovative clinical care who have distinguished themselves nationally and show great promise for important discoveries in the future,” said M. Edward Wilson, M.D., chair of the department of ophthalmology and director of SEI. “Drs. Solomon, Crosson, and Howard have contributed greatly to Storm Eye institute, MUSC, and the many patients we serve from all over South Carolina and beyond. The future eye health of our community will be better because of their combined talents and innovations.”
Friday, Nov. 30, 2007
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