Christine A. Curcio and Cynthia Owsley, professors in the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, were recently awarded the 2025 Proctor Medal from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
The award recognizes the colleagues’ decades of research in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) research, which has contributed to early intervention and prevention strategies for this leading cause of central vision loss.
A UAB faculty member since 1990, Dr. Curcio is the White-McKee Endowed Professor Emeritus in Ophthalmology and director of the AMD Histopathology Lab. In addition to her extensive research on AMD, she studies human retinal neuroscience and aging.
Dr. Curcio holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in neurobiology and anatomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Owsley has taught at UAB for more than four decades. Currently, she is the Nathan E. Miles Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology and director of the clinical research unit for her department. Her scholarship centers on the impact of aging on vision, the relationship between vision and driving, and strategies to improve routine eye care for patients at risk for eye disease and vision impairment.
A graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, Dr. Owsley holds a master’s degree in epidemiology from UAB and a Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.