Associate Professor Brian C. Samuels, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Glaucoma Division and chief of staff of the UAB Callahan Eye Hospital, has been chosen to be the inaugural holder of the Dennis Endowed Professorship in Glaucoma Research by the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama in April 2018.  

Dr. Samuels completed M.D. and Ph.D. degrees through the combined degree program at Indiana University in 2004. He received his Ph.D. in medical neurobiology and was awarded the Chancellor’s Scholars award for his thesis work.  He then completed his ophthalmology residency training at UAB. Dr. Samuels then finished both a clinical and research fellowship in glaucoma at Duke University where he was named outstanding fellow and received the Hornaday Fellowship Award. Since rejoining the UAB Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in 2013, Dr. Samuels has continued to develop a reputation internationally as an outstanding clinician-scientist.  He is currently the primary investigator on three National Institute of Health (NIH) grants. In 2018, he received the Research to Prevent Blindness Clinician-Scientist Award, one of two given nationally.  In addition to his independent research, Dr. Samuels also enjoys his collaborative work with world leaders in their respective fields both at UAB and outside institutions such as the Georgia Institute of Technology and NASA.  He continues to develop and grow a multifaceted translational research program.

In addition to seeing general ophthalmology patients, Dr. Samuels’ area of expertise is the diagnosis and treatment of patients with glaucoma. His clinical and research interests overlap significantly. His research laboratory focuses on identifying how the brain controls pressure inside the eye. Further, he has established himself as one of the leading experts in understating how differences in eye and brain pressure can lead to glaucoma and other ophthalmic diseases.