LAUSR

Ophthalmology lost a world-leading clinician-scientist and medical researcher, Dr. Ronald Klein (popularly known as Ron), a former Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at the University of Wisconsin on August 31, 2019. He was 76 years old and is survived by his wife, Dr. Barbara E. K. Klein, his son, Daniel, his daughter-in-law, Cassandra, and his grandson, Abram. Ron received his bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College, New York followed by an MD from the New York University and MPH from University of North Carolina. He completed his residency training in Ophthalmology at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and postdoctoral training in the Department of Ophthalmology, UW-Madison. Ron and his wife Barbara made seminal contributions to our understanding of the epidemiology of vision science and inspired a generation of ophthalmologists and epidemiologists globally. They were the pioneers in initiating population-based prevalence as well as longterm incidence studies, which provided several key insights on the epidemiology of blinding eye conditions like age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), glaucoma and cataract. Jointly, the Kleins were principal investigators on two landmark longitudinal epidemiological studies – The Wisconsin Epidemiological Study of Diabetic Retinopathy (WESDR) and the Beaver Dam Eye Study (BDES), apart from their leadership roles in other studies such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Atherosclerosis Risk in Community (ARIC) study and Multi-Ethnic Study on Atherosclerosis (MESA). Their work provided substantial evidence on the various risk factors including environmental, lifestyle, socio-economic status and genetic susceptibility for ocular and systemic conditions. Their work also informed some of the social impact of visual impairment. The Kleins were the first to demonstrate the role of hyperglycaemia as a major modifiable risk factor for the development and progression of DR This observation paved the way for Diabetes Control and Complication Trial (DCCT), which in 1993 confirmed the importance of hyperglycaemia in microvasculature complications in diabetes. This has nowbeen translated as a clinical guideline for the management of DR worldwide. In addition, their work highlighted cigarette smoking as a major modifiable risk factor in AMD, which is a leading cause of blindness. Ron lead a core team of more than 50 researchers and was supported by numerous grants (including National Institute of Health funding). He, along with Barbara, codirected the Wisconsin-Madison Ocular Epidemiology Reading Centre where they were involved with developing and implementing protocols for grading ocular photographs for various ocular conditions like AMD, DR, etc. They were completely involved in the data analysis and manuscript writing for many large ongoing cohort studies and collaborations worldwide. More remarkably, their achievements span beyond vision and ophthalmology. It is through their studies that our understanding of the epidemiology of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and the interrelationship between systemic diseases and the eye has progressed significantly. Their research on the use of retinal vasculature signs to understand the risk of stroke, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension is another great addition to the body of literature on ocular, vascular and other systemic conditions. Just by the metric of ‘Publications’, they published over 1000 peer-reviewed articles in ophthalmology and other leading journals like New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and the Lancet. Intriguingly, Ron and Barbara have contributed to 7 of the 100 most cited papers in ophthalmology of all times, that further exhibits the impact of their work. Ron received numerous awards including, along