Two Earn Named Professorships

The UW System Board of Regents approved the appointment of two faculty to named professorships at its April meeting.

Daniel M. Albert has been named the Frederick A. Davis, M.D. Professor in Ophthalmology, retroactive to July 1, 1992. Burton J. Kushner has been named the John W. Doolittle, M.D. Professor in Pediatric Ophthalmology, effective immediately.

Albert, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in the Medical School, has received numerous awards for his work and serves on the American Board of Ophthalmology. His research focuses on the molecular biology of ocular melanoma and retinoblastoma, and his research grant from the National Institutes of Health is in its 24th consecutive year of funding. Albert is editor-in-chief of the American Medical Association’s Archives of Ophthalmology and co-editor of Principles and Practices of Ophthalmology, which in 1994 was awarded the Professional and Scholarly Publishers award for excellence.

Davis was the Medical School’s first ophthalmologist and the first chief in the eye, ear, and nose and throat division in the Department of Surgery. He is best known for his research dealing with the histopathology of optic nerve gliomas. This professorship usually will be held by the chair of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and that income from the endowment will be used for the chair’s research or that of other department members, at the chair’s discretion. The Davis endowment was established in 1983 at the UW Foundation.

Kushner, a nationally recognized pediatric ophthalmologist, has received several awards for his work and is included in the Five National/Regional list of Best Ophthalmologists/Doctors in America, including the 1996-97 edition of The Best Doctors in America. He is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, has published more than 130 articles and has presented six named lectures.

Doolittle graduated from the Medical School in 1937 and was a prominent Madison ophthalmologist and consultant to the Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped in Janesville. His sister, Helen, was a graduate of the School of Education and was a faculty consultant to the School of Nursing. She left a bequest to the Medical School and a percentage of her estate to Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in memory of her brother. Kushner will have access to the income earnings from the principal trust of the Doolittle Professorship to support his research.