Eye surgeon becomes chair of Ophthalmology

Steven Wilson

Dr. Steven E. Wilson has been named professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, effective Sept. 1. He comes to the UW from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio, where he was medical director of the Eye-Laser Center.

Wilson is widely recognized as a leader in the delivery of refractive surgical care and for his research in the field. In addition to being chair, he will be the founding director of the Refractive Surgery Center at the UW Eye Center, which will provide cutting-edge technology and refractive surgical procedures, such as LASIK and PRK. He will also be using the excimer laser to remove corneal scars, reduce corneal irregularity, and treat painful recurrent corneal erosions.

Wilson is principal investigator on basic science studies funded by the National Eye Institute to investigate the role of growth factors and receptors in corneal development, homeostasis, wound healing, and disease. He also has several clinical trials related to refractive surgery in progress. In 1994, while an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, he was listed in “The Best Doctors in America.” He became an associate professor with tenure in 1995 and then joined the Cleveland Clinic Foundation 1996 as a professor of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy.

Wilson received an M.D. from the University of California, San Diego, in 1984. He completed an internship in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1985, and a residency in ophthalmology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in 1988. In 1990, he completed a fellowship in cornea, external disease and refractive surgery at Louisiana State University Eye Center in New Orleans. ¶