The Winston Fellow Awards in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences will be awarded annually on a competitive basis to two outstanding vision scientists.
All students enrolled in the ITVS Pathway will automatically be eligible to compete for one $5000 award. Postdoctoral fellows conducting vision science research can apply to compete for one $2500 award. A call for postdoc applications will go out in early 2025.
This award is funded by a generous donation from David and Deborah Winston.
Congratulations to the 2024 Winston Fellow Award winners!
Jade Enright and Tim Lee were awarded the Winston Fellow Awards on June 6, 2024.
The 2024 Winston Fellow Competition was hosted on June 6, 2024. Three postdoctoral finalists and three graduate students enrolled in the ITVS Pathway presented their research in competition for the two awards.
Each presenter was given 10 minutes to share their data and 3 minutes to address audience questions. Each presentation was evaluated by a panel of faculty judges–including Shiming Chen, Phil Williams, and Qian Wang–based on scientific merit, presentation, and subject matter expertise.
Thank you to the Winston Family for their generosity in support of vision science research, to the faculty judges for their time and support, and to all of the presenters for giving an excellent showcase of vision science research at WashU.
2024 ITVS Graduate Student Finalists
“Temporal cis-regulation of retinal cell fate”
“The long noncoding RNA Gm11454 regulates retinal development and photoreceptor function”
“Inhibition and arbor morphology shape dendritic integration and feature selectivity in the retina”
2024 Postdoctoral Finalists
“Apolipoprotein M attenuates dry age-related macular degeneration phenotypes via sphingosine-1-phosphate signaling and lysosomal lipid catabolism”
“Structural organization and tensile strength of the human ciliary zonule“
“Müller glia regulate fovea-like cone specialization in zebrafish”
Meet the Winstons
The Winston Fellow Award in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences was funded in 2022 by a generous gift from David and Deborah Winston.
The Winstons are national patrons of the arts and sciences with long-standing ties to Washington University. Their love of travel and appreciation of cultural events, arts, and music have colored the generous support they have given to scholars, scientists, and musicians across the country for years. David and Deborah are committed to facilitating access to higher education, advancing medical and scientific research, and supporting the creative pursuit of the musical arts. They are thrilled to foster the education and growth of bright, dedicated students, whose knowledge and passion will make a difference in our world for generations to come.
Since retiring from successful careers, David and Deborah now devote their efforts to jointly run the J&M Foundation, dedicated to the memory of David’s parents, to carry out its mission of supporting “scholarships for the mind, medicine for the body, [and] music for the soul.”
