Why we’re here

Peter J. McDonnell, MD is the Director of the Wilmer Eye Institute and Professor of Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A board-certified ophthalmologist and specialist in corneal disease and surgery, Dr. McDonnell is an international leader in corneal transplantation, laser refractive surgery, and the treatment of dry eye.

Dr. McDonnell’s research interests include dry eye disease, ocular infection and gene therapy to control corneal wound healing and inflammation. He is the recipient of research grants from the National Eye Institute, Research to Prevent Blindness, and other funding agencies. He has published over 250 scientific articles and holds four patents. In 2013, Dr. McDonnell was elected president of NAEVR/AEVR Board of Directors (the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research and the Alliance for Eye and Vision Research).

Dr. McDonnell received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Dartmouth College and is 1982 graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, followed by a fellowship in cornea and external diseases at the Doheny Eye Institute of the University of Southern California. In 2003, he returned to Johns Hopkins University where he currently leads the Wilmer Eye Institute as the sixth William Holland Wilmer Professor and Director.

David G. Hunter, MD, PhD is a leading physician and researcher in the field of strabismus and amblyopia. He is currently the Ophthalmologist-in-Chief and the Chair of Ophthalmology at Boston Children’s Hospital where he oversees the largest pediatric ophthalmology department in the nation and perhaps the world. He is also a Professor and the Vice Chair of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Hunter is co-author of the book Last Minute Optics and Learning Strabismus Surgery: A Case-Based Approach. He has served on the editorial board for the Journal of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. He is also the past Vice President and elected Trustee of the 12,000-member Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is also founder and board member of REBIScan, Inc, which is developing a new product related to pediatric vision screening.

Dr. Hunter obtained a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Rice University and a PhD (in Cell Biology) and MD from Baylor College of Medicine. After he completed an ophthalmology residency at Harvard’s Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary, he was a fellow at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he remained on faculty until 2002, when he was selected as Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at Boston Children’s.

Marguerite McDonald, MD, FACS, is a board-certified ophthalmologist specializing in corneal, cataract, and refractive surgery. She is a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at New York University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Tulane University Health Sciences Center. She is also an associate of Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island.

Dr. McDonald formerly served as a Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Corneal Service at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Eye Center, LSU Medical Center School of Medicine in New Orleans. She has been the Principal Investigator of three National Eye Institute grants for the study of refractive surgery. In New Orleans, she headed the research team investigating the use of the excimer laser. In 1987, she performed America’s first excimer laser treatment for nearsightedness, and in 1993, she performed America’s first excimer laser surgery for farsightedness. Dr. McDonald also served as a principal investigator for Bausch and Lomb and Nidek EC 5000 lasers. As a result, she performed the world’s first Summit/Autonomous wavefront-based excimer laser surgeries.

Dr. McDonald received her medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed her internship at Lenox Hill Hospital and her ophthalmology residency at Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat Hospital / Cornell. She also underwent fellowship training in corneal and external diseases at the LSU Eye Center in New Orleans.

Mark Bear, PhD is a Professor of Neuroscience at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also serves as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Dr. Bear’s laboratory focuses on how the brain is modified by experience. He uses a variety of methods (electrophysiological, biochemical, molecular, behavioral, and anatomical) to examine the synaptic modifications that form the neurobiological basis of learning and memory. His work is particularly focused on understanding developmental plasticity in the visual cortex, as well as other forms of experience-dependent synaptic modification in visual cortex and hippocampus. In recent years, Dr. Bear has described novel forms of procedural learning in the visual system, and investigated synaptic function in models of fragile X syndrome and other autism spectrum disorders.

Dr. Bear served as Director of The Picower Institute from 2007 to 2009. Prior to moving to MIT in 2003, Dr. Bear was on the faculty of Brown University School of Medicine for 17 years. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Duke University, he earned his PhD degree in neurobiology at Brown. He received his postdoctoral training from Wolf Singer at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, and from Leon Cooper at Brown.

Gil Binenbaum, MD, MSCE holds a Richard Shafritz Endowed Chair in Pediatric Ophthalmology Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia