Dr. D. Jackson Coleman and Jane Coleman (center) with Greenberg Award co-chairs Bernadette Castro Guida and Dr. Peter Guida (left) and Myra and Arthur Mahon (right).
At a gala award celebration held at The Plaza on May 2, Dr. D. Jackson Coleman, chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, was honored as the recipient of the Medical Center's 2001 Maurice R. Greenberg Distinguished Service Award. He is the 25th recipient of the award—which is presented to a senior member of the medical staff in recognition of exceptional and long-standing service to the Medical Center.
Established in 1980, the Greenberg Award is named for one of the Medical Center's most generous benefactors, Maurice R. Greenberg, who is chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
As a recipient of the Greenberg Award, Dr. Coleman received a $50,000 grant for his research in ophthalmology.
Dr. Coleman has been associated with the Medical Center since 1979, when he became chairman of ophthalmology at Cornell University Medical College and ophthalmologist-in-chief at The New York Hospital. As chairman of ophthalmology, he also holds the John Milton McLean Professorship in Ophthalmology at Weill Cornell.
Dr. Coleman's interest in the physics of optics has propelled him to the forefront of research in ophthalmology and the development of ultrasound technology for examining and treating the eye. He holds 11 patents for ophthalmological devices and processes, and has several other patents pending. He co-authored a book on ultrasonography, has written numerous chapters in the field, and has authored and contributed to 160 articles in scientific publications.
With the generous support of the late Charles and Margaret Dyson and the Dyson Foundation, Dr. Coleman created Weill Cornell's Margaret M. Dyson Vision Research Institute—one of the major ophthalmological research institutes in the world. The institute pursues cutting-edge vision research in collaboration with scientists at The Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Dr. Coleman received his M.D. degree from the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and did his internship at Bellevue Hospital in New York. After fulfilling his military obligation in the U.S. Public Health Service, he completed his residency in ophthalmology at Columbia University's Harkness Eye Institute, where he also conducted research sponsored by the NIH. He joined the faculty of Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1969, and 10 years later accepted appointment as chairman of ophthalmology at Cornell.