The John B Charles Memorial Lecture
The John B Charles Memorial Lecture is a new addition to the Human Research Program Investigators' Workshop (HRP IWS) program starting in 2024 to highlight up-and-coming scientists in the human spaceflight life sciences research community. The 60-minute plenary presentation will be given annually and allow for a deeper dive into the crucial research impacting the success of NASA's missions. Presenters are nominated by the Human Research Program Elements and the final selection is made by the IWS Steering Committee. Dr. Alex Huang was selected to give the plenary presentation at the 2024 IWS.
The title for Dr. Huang's presentation is Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS): SANS is a VIP.
Dr. Alex Huang completed his MD/PhD at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with Lasker Award-winning Dr. Solomon Snyder in 2009. He then completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of Southern California and Doheny Eye Institute (DEI) in 2012. Dr. Huang was then a Heed Foundation supported glaucoma fellow with Dr. Robert Weinreb at Shiley Eye Institute and University of California San Diego (UCSD) in 2013. After becoming an inaugural faculty member of the DEI and University of California Los Angeles affiliation, Dr. Huang rejoined the Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology and Shiley Eye Institute/UCSD as the Alfred Vogt Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology in 2021.
Dr. Huang is a clinician-scientist who is supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI) of the National Institutes of Health as well as by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Clinically, Dr. Huang is recognized as a thought leader in new angle-based minimally invasive glaucoma surgeries that he offers to his patients. He has directed his clinical acumen in MIGS into a NEI R01-supported research program dedicated to developing a combined structure:function understanding of aqueous humor outflow using optical coherence tomography and aqueous angiography. In his NASA-supported research, Dr. Huang focuses on the cause and development of countermeasures for Space flight-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS), a condition characterized by ocular changes due to persistent weightlessness exposure. In addition, he is developing artificial intelligence driven SANS diagnostic and risk assessment tools.
During his career, Dr. Huang was named the #1 Rising Star in the world by The Ophthalmologist magazine in 2017 and a member of The Ophthalmologist Power 100 List in 2020. In 2021, Dr. Huang received the ARVO Foundation Pfizer Ophthalmics Carl Camras Translational Research Award.
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