Harvard Catalyst Profiles

David G. Hunter, MD, PhD is Ophthalmologist-in-Chief and the Richard M. Robb Chair of Ophthalmology at Boston Children's Hospital, President of the Children's Hospital Ophthalmology Foundation, Professor and Vice Chair of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. 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 Ophthalmological Institute, Johns Hopkins University, where he remained on faculty until 2002, when he was selected as Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at Children's. During his time at Children's, the Department of Ophthalmology at Boston Children's Hospital has grown to become the largest pediatric ophthalmology department in the nation and perhaps the world, with 39 faculty, including 20 full-time and 3 part-time MD ophthalmologists and 7 pediatric optometrists, with pediatric subspecialists in nearly every aspect of ophthalmology, as well as 10 full-time research faculty. The department also has created 10 endowed chairs as well as an endowed international observership to support clinical and basic research, teaching, and the worldwide dissemination of advances in pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus. Dr. Hunter's clinical and research interests focus on strabismus and amblyopia. He is co-author of the book, Last Minute Optics, now in its second edition, and Learning Strabismus Surgery: A Case-Based Approach. His lectures on optics and refraction for ophthalmologists-in-training around the world are available free of charge in podcast format. He is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Journal of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus; past Vice President, past Trustee, and Gold Fellow of the 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 chairman of Rebion, an early revenue-stage company commercializing breakthrough technology in pediatric vision disorders as well as traumatic brain injury.