As part of their Sixth Annual Emerging Vision Scientists Day on Capitol Hill recognizing International AMD Awareness Week 2020 and Health Aging Month, AEVR hosted a Congressional Briefing featuring National Eye Institute (NEI) clinician-scientist Tiarnan D. Keenan, BM, BCh, PhD and T.Y. Alvin Liu, MD, Wilmer Eye Institute/Johns Hopkins University, who discussed how Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a key role in the diagnosis and treatment of retinal diseases. Jack Stewart, a representative from the American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF), provided an AMD patient’s perspective.

With the recent reliance on digital devices for e-learning for children, remote work for adults, and communications for seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic, a panel will address potential visual implications in all stages of life, such as Digital Eye Strain and Dry Eye Disease.

On May 19 2020, NAEVR, along with the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), held a special Defense Research Funding Opportunities Webinar which was hosted by NAEVR Executive Director James Jorkasky and Immediate-Past ARVO President W. Daniel Stamer, PhD, FARVO (Duke University). Featuring Q. Tian Wang, PhD, Program Manager for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Vision Research Program (VRP), the event replaced NAEVR’s Defense Research Funding Opportunities session held annually at the ARVO Annual Meeting, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 300 interested researchers participated.

On September 18 and 19, AEVR’s Decade of Vision 2010-2020 Initiative hosted its Fifth Annual Emerging Vision Scientists (EVS) Day on Capitol Hill, which was supported by a grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB).

On September 27, AEVR’s Decade of Vision 2010-2020 Initiative hosted its Fourth Annual Emerging Vision Scientists (EVS) Day on Capitol Hill, which was supported by a grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB). The event, held during Healthy Vision Month and International Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Awareness Week 2018, occurred as Congress passed—and the President signed—H.R. 6157, the minibus Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 spending bill that finalized Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) appropriations prior to the end of FY2018.