The WashU Medicine John F. Hardesty, MD, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences celebrated the creativity, collaboration and scientific discovery of its research community during the 2026 Vision Science Research Retreat on Friday, September 25.
The annual retreat brought together faculty, trainees and staff for a morning poster session showcasing vision science research from across the department. The day also featured “Science in Focus: Art Beyond the Microscope,” a science-as-art competition highlighting the intersection of scientific discovery and visual creativity.
Recognizing Excellence in Vision Science Research
Several researchers were recognized with Rosenbaum Research Awards for their outstanding poster presentations during this year’s retreat. These awards celebrate researchers’ significant research achievements and are decided by a panel of faculty judges based on scientific merit and presentation. An additional group of students was celebrated for their commitment to the vision science community and completion of the Interdisciplinary Training in Vision Science (ITVS) Pathway.
Rosenbaum Research Award for Best Poster
Evelyn Craigen, a PhD student in the Clark Lab and former ITVS Pathway trainee, received the First Place award for her poster, Machine Learning Identifies Sequence Signatures of Temporal Cis-Regulatory Element Activity.
AJ Adkins, a PhD student in the Zhou Lab and Imaging Science Pathways Fellow, received the Honorable Mention for his poster, Simultaneous Dual-Eye Optical Coherence Tomography with a Head-Mounted Wearable Device.
Rosenbaum Early Career Award
The Early Career Award was introduced at this year’s retreat to promote retention in scientific research by recognizing the significant effort put forth by medical students, postbaccalaureate scholars, and technicians within their first three years in the lab. Madyson Brown, a former postbaccalaureate scholar and current technician in the Chen Lab, received the inaugural Rosenbaum Early Career Poster Award for her poster, Pathogenic Analysis of a Congenital Blindness-Causing CRX Mutation with Multi-Species Models.
Commitment to Community
ITVS students elect to complete additional coursework and deeply engage with the vision science community gathered at the retreat. For this, we celebrated the most recent cohort to successfully complete all requirements of the ITVS Pathway: Christy Hoffmann, a PhD student in the Clark Lab; Ramiz Somjee, an MSTP student in the Corbo and Holehouse Labs; and Xiayingfang Song, a PhD student in the Kerschensteiner Lab.
Science in Focus: Art Beyond the Microscope
The “Science in Focus” competition invited researchers to showcase the beauty and creativity found within vision science through compelling scientific images.
Pooja Rathaur, PhD, of the Bassnett Lab, received the Science in Focus Popular Choice Award for her image, Mouse Eye at Embryonic Day 14.5. Rathaur, a postdoctoral fellow in the Bassnett Lab, has previously been recognized by the department for her research in vision science.
Rathaur also had a second image, Newt Eye at 30 Days of Lens Regeneration, selected as a finalist. Codie Cook, a technician in the Walsh Lab was also selected as a finalist for Uncontained.
The 2026 Vision Science Research Retreat provided an opportunity for members of the department to share their latest work, celebrate research accomplishments and connect across laboratories. Together, the poster awards and Science in Focus competition showcased the breadth of talent and creativity driving vision science research at WashU Medicine.
