Wallace Thoreson, Ph.D., named 2003 winner of UNMC College of Medicine Joseph P. Gilmore Outstanding Investigator Award

Wallace Thoreson, Ph.D., recently received the 2003 University of Nebraska

Medical Center College of Medicine Joseph P. Gilmore Outstanding Investigator

Award for his research into understanding how the eye works.

Dr. Gilmore, for whom the award is named, was professor and chairman

of the UNMC department of physiology from 1970 to 1987. He was funded by

the National Institutes of Health for his entire career, supervised numerous

graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, and published more than 200

scientific papers. The award was established by the department of physiology

and biophysics upon Dr. Gilmores retirement in 1987 to recognize outstanding

research contributions by a faculty member.

When he was in college, his textbooks seemed to indicate that scientists

had perfect vision on almost everything about human eyesight. However,

as he progressed through his graduate and post-graduate training, Dr. Thoreson

realized that the science worlds focus of vision function and disease

was more than a little blurry.

As you study it more, instead of understanding everything and filling

in all of the gaps, you see all of the gaps, said Dr. Thoreson, an associate

professor in the departments of ophthalmology and pharmacology at UNMC,

and in the department of biology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Thats what makes it exciting. There are major gaps in our knowledge,

and were working to find answers to some of those gaps.

Carl Camras, M.D., chairman of the department of ophthalmology, said

Dr. Thoresons exemplary scientific work is leading to his recognition

as one of the worlds outstanding retinal physiologists.

Dr. Thoresons innovative research on basic mechanisms of visual processing

within the retina supplies us with important new information, which helps

us to better understand vision in health and in disease, Dr. Camras said.

In addition to his important contributions to research, he provides our

department with valued administrative skills.  He is a wonderful person

who is so very deserving of this prestigious award.

Dr. Thoreson studies early steps in the processing of visual information

by the retina, a tissue that lines the inside of the eye. His research

has been funded by the National Institutes of Health since he came to UNMC

a decade ago.

We need a better fundamental understanding of how this works normally,

so that we can better understand what goes wrong in eye disease, and ultimately

how we can treat people better who have specific eye diseases, Dr. Thoreson

said.