Dr. J. William Harbour received the Cogan Award at the 2005 meeting of ARVO. The award is given annually to ophthalmic investigators 40 years old or younger who have shown extraordinary achievements in ophthalmic research.
Dr. Harbour received his MD degree from Johns Hopkins University. As a medical student, he participated in the Howard Hughes/NIH Research Scholars program, and his first publication—as a medical student—was a first-authored paper in Science describing the retinoblastoma gene in lung cancer. After completing his residency in ophthalmology at the Wills Eye Hospital, he trained in vitreoretinal surgery and ophthalmic oncology. He joined the faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Washington University in St. Louis in 1996. He pursued further training in a mentored clinician–scientist program in Molecular Oncology at Washington University.
As a young investigator, Dr. Harbour has contributed more than 50 original articles to the peer-reviewed literature. Many of his publications appear in the most prestigious medical and scientific journals. His research, funded by the National Eye Institute, focuses on the biology of the ocular neoplasms retinoblastoma and malignant melanoma—research that compliments his clinical practice of ophthalmic oncology.
An ophthalmic generation has passed since the ophthalmic community lost one of its most prolific and beloved leaders, David G. Cogan, MD, after whom Dr. Harbour’s award and lecture are named. Dr. Cogan, a clinician-scientist who contributed much to so many areas of ophthalmic investigation, had a particular affection for young scientists. He would often engage a new ophthalmic investigator at a meeting with encouragement to be bold and visionary. On the occasion of his 70th birthday, Dr. Cogan expressed relief at the milestone, because he thought that at that age, no one could consider him a “threat” and he was finally free to express his ideas unfettered by political considerations that seem to constrain new scientists.
Dr. Cogan was an outstanding teacher, and it is noteworthy that Dr. Harbour, the 2005 Cogan Award recipient, has already trained more than 17 clinical fellows and 14 graduate students and postdoctoral research fellows.
For Dr. Harbour, the Cogan Award is an important milestone, because it marks a transition from the young investigator to the established scientist. The award is a recognition of considerable potential, and the ophthalmic community looks forward to Dr. Harbour’s future contributions and to his leadership in the arena of ophthalmic scholarship. The paper that appears in this issue of IOVS—the 2005 Cogan Lecture—summarizes a considerable body of investigation by Dr. Harbour and his colleagues into the molecular biology of uveal melanoma. The paper is testimony to his achievements as a young scientist, and it affords the reader a glimpse into the future of uveal melanoma research and provides us with the opportunity to anticipate the potential contributions from Dr. Harbour throughout the remainder of what we hope will be a long and productive career.