Posted on June 30, 2004 at 3:39 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Professor Paul D. R. Gamlin, Ph.D., has been named chairman of the department of physiological optics in the UAB School of Optometry.

Gamlin’s appointment became effective June 1. He replaces Professor Lawrence E. Mays, who retired Jan. 1. The department of physiological optics has 21 faculty members with more than $6 million in grant funding.

Gamlin came to the UAB School of Optometry in 1984 as a postdoctoral fellow in the department of physiological optics and received his faculty appointment in 1989. From 1995-99, Gamlin served as director of the UAB Vision Science Research Center. Currently, Gamlin serves as director of the Center for the Development of Functional Imaging and director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program.

Dr. Gamlin's research has been continuously funded by the National Eye Institute since 1989. A major component of his research is directed toward understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the control of eye movements required to look at objects at different distances — vergence and ocular accommodation. His work has been published in journals such as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Journal of Neurophysiology. Gamlin also teaches extensively at the professional and graduate level and, in 1997, he received the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Gamlin obtained a bachelor of arts in zoology from the University of Cambridge in 1978, and a doctorate in neurobiology and behavior from SUNY at Stony Brook in 1984.

Gamlin, his wife Dr. Julie Baskin, and their three children live in Forest Park.