Dr. Kaveri Thakoor Receives Prestigious RPB Career Development Award in Data Science

Congratulations to Kaveri A. Thakoor, PhD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmic Science (in Ophthalmology), on being awarded the prestigious Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB)/Tom Wertheimer Career Development Award in Data Science to support eye research over a four year-period. Dr. Thakoor's AI4VS Lab aims to transform artificial intelligence into a 'team-mate' to clinicians during the disease diagnosis workflow augmenting the ability of medical experts to expedite the detection of eye diseases, such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and beyond. 

The RPB Career Development Award was established in 1990 to support outstanding early-career researchers in making critical discoveries and launching their careers as independent investigators, with the support of a mentorship team. To date, 255 vision research scientists in departments of ophthalmology at universities across the country have received Career Development Awards.

Dr. Thakoor’s research is pioneering a new frontier in ophthalmology by using AI to decode systemic health through the eye. Her work has the potential to revolutionize how we detect and monitor diseases, said George A. Cioffi, MD, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.  

Since it was founded in 1960, RPB has channeled more than $429 million into eye research. As a result, RPB has been identified with nearly every major breakthrough in vision research in that time. For information on RPB’s grants program, listings of RPB institutional and individual grantees, and findings generated by these awards, go to www.rpbusa.org.