This award honors the best abstract presentation by a medical student at the NANOS Annual Meeting, celebrating early‑career excellence in scientific communication.

Listed below are all past recipients of this distinction.

2026

• TBA

2025

• David Szanto — Artificial Intelligence Can Differentiate Causes of Optic Disc Edema Using Unsegmented OCTs
• Jessica McHenry — Non-Mydriatic Ocular Fundus Imaging on Consecutive Patients Presenting to a General Emergency Department (ED) with Vision Complaints

2024

• Olivia Grech — Raised Intracranial Pressure Alters Cranial Nociception Which Can Be Rescued by Glucagon Like Peptide 1 Receptor Agonism and CGRP Antagonism In Vivo

2023

• Timothy Kim, JD, BA — In Vivo Application of Electric Fields Collaborate with rRHEB to Direct Optic Nerve Regeneration

2022

• Micalla Peng, BS — Electric Fields Direct Full-Length Optic Nerve Regeneration And Partial Restoration of Visual Function

2021

• Benjamin I. Meyer, BS — Significance of Incidental Imaging Signs of Intracranial Hypertension with Corresponding Fundus Photography: A Prospective Study

2020

• Elizabeth Saionz, PhD — Time is vision: early training enhances vision restoration after occipital stroke

2019

• Perry J. Thompson, BA — Near Infrared Videography versus Direct Ophthalmoscopy for the Detection of Spontaneous Venous Pulsations

2018

• Rachel Nolan, BA — Inter-Eye Difference Thresholds for Predicting an Optic Nerve Lesion in MS: An International Study

2017

• Anvesh Annadannam, BS  from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore — Effect of Contrast Sensitivity on Pseudoisochromatic Plate Color Vision Tests

2016

• Amulya Gampa — Change in Peripapillary Bruch's Membrane Shape Can Be Detected 1 Hour After Lowering of Intracranial Pressure by Lumbar Puncture

2015

• Sui H. Wong, MD — Natural History of Ocular Myasthenia Gravis in 101 cases: Towards a Risk of Generalization ('ROG') Score

2014

• Matthew A. Miller — A Comparison of Clinical Features of Pseudotumor Cerebri Secondary to Tetracyclines and Idiopathic Intercranial Hypertension

2013

• Ali S. Saber Tehrani — Quantitative video-oculography for diagnosing stroke at the bedside in acute vertigo: an “ECG” for the eyes

2012

• Mithu Storoni, MA MRCOphth — The Use Of Magnetic Resonance Imaging To Distinguish Between NMO Spectrum And MS Related Optic Neuritis Based On The Appearance Of The Visual Pathways

2011

• Joyce Ho — In Vivo Imaging of Murine Experimental Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy

2010

• Jonathan Frandsen — Macular Carotenoids in Patients with Photophobia

2009

• Sally C. Chang — MS Functional Composite Scores with a Visual Component Added Capture Axonal Loss in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

2008

• Matt Schlenker — The Translational Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex in Patients with Skew Deviation

2007

• Bryn Burkholder — Low-Contrast Letter Acuity Loss Over Time in Multiple Sclerosis Correlates with Reductions in Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness and Macular Volume by OCT

2006

• Michael D. Richards — Duration of Binocular Decorrelation Predicts the Intensity of Fusion Maldevelopment (Latent) Nystagmus in Strabismic Macaque Monkeys

2005

• Christopher Rodarte, BA — A Quantitative Approach to Identifying Delayed Latencies in the Multifocal Visual Evoked Potential (mfVEP)

2004

• Paula Wynn — A Quantitative Approach to Identifying Non-Organic Contributions to Field Defects Using the Multifocal Visual Evoked Potential (mfVEP)