With this grant, the National Eye Institute has supported the center continually for nearly three decades. The center is known internationally for its breadth of research, from the basic structure of the eye that gathers light to how the brain puts together electrical signals to provide vision, and how that vision guides the actions people take.
Scientists believe that up to half the nerve cells in the brain are devoted to vision.
CVS includes 27 faculty members from six departments, giving the University one of the greatest concentrations of vision researchers in the world. The center's director, David Williams, recently received word he will soon be honored with the Edgar D. Tillyer Award, presented by the Optical Society of America to scientists whose work has greatly advanced understanding of human vision. Williams studies how the human eye gathers light and sends impulses to the brain, and how the brain interprets those impulses to give sight. Specifically, he examines the retina, the screen inside the eye that converts light into electrical impulses. His research could someday help physicians to better diagnose and treat eye diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, two leading causes of blindness.