Congratulations to Ahmad Abdel-Aty, M.D., recipient of The Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration’s 2025 R. Townley Paton Ophthalmology Research Fellowship. Dr. Abdel-Aty is a Cornea, External Disease and Refractive Surgery Fellow at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. His submission was selected by The Eye-Bank’s Fellowship Review Committee. The $10,000 merit award will help support Dr. Abdel-Aty’s research study, which involves evaluating Eye-Bank data from 2022–2025 to determine whether recent changes to FDA guidelines regarding sepsis and tuberculosis would have had a significant impact on the donor pool in that time period, thus affecting the availability of corneal tissue for transplant.
The Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration’s R. Townley Paton Fellowship is a merit award for research across all ophthalmology disciplines and vision sciences being conducted within The Eye-Bank’s service area of New York City, Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley. Originally established in 1980 and named for the organization’s founder, The Eye-Bank’s R. Townley Paton Fellowship was designed to encourage basic science and clinical research into possible treatments and cures of blinding eye diseases.
Following his R. Townley Paton Fellowship, Dr. Abdel-Aty will deliver a presentation of his research findings to The Eye-Bank’s Medical Advisory Board.
The deadline to apply for next year’s R. Townley Paton Fellowship is October 15, 2026.
For more information, go to: www.eyedonation.org/r-townley-paton-fellowship/.