Timeline

Century of Wilmer

Over the past 100 years, Wilmer Eye Institute has set the standard for excellence in research, education and patient care based on the philosophy of founder William Holland Wilmer, who believed that integrating these elements under one roof would make better researchers, teachers and doctors.

For a century, these components have worked symbiotically, enabling the institute to advance our understanding of disease, develop cutting-edge therapies and train future generations of ophthalmology leaders. Along the way, this hallowed institute has born — and borne witness to — an untold number of landmark moments in the history of the field.

Vision for the Future

1922

Aida De Acosta Root Breckinridge, who in 1903 piloted the first solo flight in a dirigible by a woman, was treated for glaucoma by famed eye specialist William Holland Wilmer. She lost sight in one eye, but Wilmer’s care saved her other eye and inspired her to organize a fundraising campaign that resulted in $3 million to fund the establishment of the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Rewarding Innovation

1956

Everett Kinsey and Arnall Patz receive the 1956 Lasker Joint Award for Medical Research in Atlantic City, New Jersey, November 15, 1956, for their finding that excess oxygen in incubators was the cause of an epidemic of blindness among some 10,000 premature infants. When Helen Keller, center, discerned through the engraving on the award given to Patz that it was actually the one meant for Jonas Salk, she grasped the awards so Patz wouldn’t realize in the moment that he had been handed the wrong award. Patz would go on to become director of the Wilmer Eye Institute, in 1979. In 2004, he receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Lifesaving Work

1983

Alfred Sommer, founding director of the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology at Wilmer, discovers that vitamin A capsules, which prevent blindness, also cut death rates in malnourished children by 30%. Sommer wins the Lasker Award for this work in 1997.

Translating Scientific Discoveries into Better Treatments

2010s-2024

The ultimate goal of researching new treatments in the lab is to get them to the clinic to benefit patients. At Wilmer, teams of faculty entrepreneurs are working with Johns Hopkins University and the appropriate oversight committees to create companies dedicated to bringing their discoveries to market. As of 2024, they’ve created 14 such companies, with more in the early stages of formation.

Supporting a Meteoric Rise

2021

Rising professorships, launched in 2021 by Wilmer Director Peter J. McDonnell, aim to speed the development of Wilmer’s next generation of leaders by providing seven years of funding for promising young scientists to undertake large-scale research projects, from measuring and treating corneal infections to regenerating damaged optic nerves.

The goal of this funding is to add years of productivity to the careers of young researchers — whose work will benefit patients today and into the future. At the time of this publication, there are nine rising professorships.

1925 (Image) :

The Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute is established on the Johns Hopkins University medical campus. William Holland Wilmer, one of the most influential ophthalmologists in the country, is selected as its founding director.
1920s-1930s (Image) :

Clarence Ferree and Gertrude Rand, director and assistant director, respectively, of the Research Laboratory for Physiological Optics at Wilmer, develop the Ferree-Rand perimeter for determining light sensitivity and color discrimination in the visual field.
1947 (Image) :

Frank B. Walsh establishes the first dedicated neuro-ophthalmology clinic at Wilmer and publishes the foremost textbook on the subject, Clinical Neuro-Ophthalmology.
1954 (Image) :

Bernard Becker establishes acetazolamide, Diamox, as the first effective oral treatment for glaucoma.
1950s (Image) :

Research by David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel shows that there is a critical period during which the visual system develops in mammals and that impairment of that system during that time will affect the lifelong vision of a mammal. The pair later share the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries.
1960s (Image) :

Arnall Patz develops the argon laser photocoagulator in collaboration with JHU/APL scientists and pioneers its use in diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and other diseases.
1970s (Image) :

David Guyton develops the first automated refractor. Guyton and resident John Minkowski will go on to invent the Potential Acuity Meter to accurately measure retinal visual acuity behind cataracts.
1972 (Image) :

Irene Maumenee establishes the Johns Hopkins Center for Genetic Eye Diseases at Wilmer, the first center in the U.S. for the study of genetic eye disease.
1979 (Image) :

The Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology, a leader in global and domestic research on blindness prevention and the only World Health Organization collaborating center in the United States, is established.
2010s-2024 (Image) :

Wilmer faculty members establish 14 startup companies to commercialize new technologies developed in Wilmer laboratories.
2020-2021 (Image) :

In consecutive years, the American Academy of Ophthalmology names two Wilmer-trained women as AAO presidents, including the first African American woman to preside over the organization.
2021 (Image) :

Wilmer Director Peter J. McDonnell establishes a first-of-its-kind rising professorships program to provide training and support to accelerate the careers of Wilmer’s next generation of leaders.
2025 (Image) :

With his election as the 2025 president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Michael X. Repka becomes the 133rd leader in the ophthalmology field to have trained at Wilmer Eye Institute.