Ann E. Elsner

Ann E. Elsner received her BA degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, and her MA and PhD from the University of Oregon, USA. Following a unique postdoctoral fellowship in a National Eye Institute program to provide intensive clinical training to scientists, she moved to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Carnegie-Mellon University, where she added research in eye movements, audition, and the vestibular system to her background in vision and tactile research. In 1987, she started a laboratory at the Schepens Eye Research, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, where she developed retinal imaging and visual function technologies. She moved her laboratory to Indiana University in 2005, and also founded Aeon Imaging, LLC, to lower costs in healthcare and education. Today, she a Distinguished Professor in Optometry at Indiana University, USA. Her laboratory develops retinal imaging and visual function techniques to combat vision loss. 

Elsner’s research revolutionized retinal imaging by introducing novel laser sources into instruments with scanning designs, confocal properties, solid state detectors, and specialized techniques for presenting visual stimuli. She produced the first images or biomedical application for a variety of lasers in under-utilized wavelength ranges, including Ti:Sapphire.  New image processing techniques, including analysis for multiply scattered light and polarization, revealed structures previously unseen in living eyes  This led to acceptance of near infrared imaging with a variety of modalities, now combatting eye disease and impacting research and healthcare worldwide.

In recognition of her work, Elsner is a Fellow of Optica and the 2018 Edwin H. Land medalist, a Gold Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and a Fellow and the 2022 Prentice Award winner of the American Academy of Optometry.