Joel S. Schuman, MD, FACS is the Elaine Langone Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Professor of Neuroscience & Physiology at NYU Langone Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Professor of Neural Science in the Center for Neural Science at NYU College of Arts and Sciences. He chaired the ophthalmology department at NYU Langone Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine 2016-2020. Prior to arriving at NYU in 2016, he was Distinguished Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology, Eye and Ear Foundation Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology, Director of UPMC Eye Center (2003-2016) and before that was at Tufts University 1991-2003, where he was Residency Director (1991-1999) and Glaucoma and Cataract Service Chief (1991-2003).  In 1998 he became Professor of Ophthalmology, and Vice Chair in 2001.

Dr. Schuman and his colleagues were first to identify a molecular marker for human glaucoma, published in Nature Medicine in 2001.  Continuously funded by the National Eye Institute as a principal investigator since 1995, he is an inventor of optical coherence tomography (OCT), used world-wide for ocular diagnostics.  Dr. Schuman has published more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles.

In 2002 he received the Alcon Research Institute Award and the Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize, in 2006 the ARVO Translational Research Award, and in 2012 the Carnegie Science Center Award as well as sharing the Champalimaud Award (a 1 million Euro cash prize). He was elected to the American Ophthalmological Society in 2008.  In 2011 Dr. Schuman was the Clinician-Scientist Lecturer of the American Glaucoma Society.  In 2013 he gave the Robert N. Shaffer Lecture at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Annual Meeting, and received the AAO Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 he became a Gold Fellow of ARVO and he received a Special Recognition Award from the AAO in 2015. He was elected to the American Association of Physicians and also received the Fight for Sight Physician/Scientist Award in 2016. In 2017 he received the Leslie Dana Gold Medal. In 2018 Dr. Schuman was the AGS Lecturer and received the Fight for Sight Alumni Achievement Award. In 2019 he was given the BrightFocus Scientific Impact Award, and in 2021 the Eye Foundation of America Robert Murphy Visionary Award. He is named in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Medical Sciences Education, America’s Top Doctors and Best Doctors in America.