Robert Morris, M.D.

I am the son of Delmar M Morris, founding Director of Administration of the Marshall Space Flight Center (Huntsville, Alabama, USA) whom the pioneering rocket scientist Dr. Werner von Braun called “my alter ego.” As a teenager, I lived near the center of NASA’s successful moon landing venture, and was influenced by close personal contact with Dr. von Braun during my college years.

 Aspiring to become an astronaut, I obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, while minoring in premed, from Purdue University. I was sponsored by NASA through U. S. Air Force pilot training, flying top line fighter aircraft for the next five years. But three years after Neil Armstrong’s moon landing, NASA abruptly canceled the Apollo manned space flight program, and I reluctantly canceled my “outer space” ambitions.

After graduating from medical school (my “plan B”) I entered an Ophthalmology residency, influenced by my visual experiences as a pilot, and my desire to enter a field of surgery. I soon found that when we had landed on the moon in 1969, we had not yet reached the back of the human eye.  A new quest, to explore the eye’s elegant “inner space”, had presented itself.

I immediately pursued an interest in the new field of “deep eye surgery”. After training with the inventor of vitrectomy, Dr. Robert Machemer, at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and after a fellowship in Cologne, Germany in ocular trauma, I returned to Helen Keller’s home state of Alabama in 1980 as its first trained vitrectomy surgeon.

For three exciting decades I’ve subsequently conducted a pioneering vitreoretinal surgery practice in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, enabled by a consistently supportive family; an administrator (Roger Gehri) who became my alter ego; and an amazing surgical nurse (Stephanie Hill). My special interest has been helping victims of bilateral eye injury who have come from the United States, Canada, the Middle East, Asia and South America.

While daily treating patients afflicted with sight loss, I’ve been accompanied by devoted partners, practicing vitreoretinal surgery throughout Alabama, and by resident physicians and fellows in training. They now practice throughout the United States, and in Italy and New Zealand. I feel that a little part of me remains with each of them, and they with me.

Throughout my career, I’ve pursued vision research discoveries arising directly from the need to overcome limitations of existent treatments. This research was conducted under the auspices of the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education (helenkellerfoundation.org), with the assistance of Helen Keller’s family; generous donors; an executive director (Laura Beckwith) who has steadfastly pursued Helen Keller’s goals; a talented administrative assistant (Christina Sullivan) and outstanding colleagues. Most notably, Dr. Ferenc Kuhn emigrated from Hungary in 1990 to join me as a research collaborator, initiating two decades of eye research progress for which I will always be grateful. In essence, he became my brother.

As President of her legacy Foundation, the opportunity to continue Helen Keller’s quest to end blindness has provided powerful and prolonged inspiration.

SELECTED POSITIONS 

President, Retina Specialists of Alabama.

Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology, UAB.

Chief of Staff, UAB Callahan Eye Hospital (2003 – 2012).

President, Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education.

Chairman, International Society of Ocular Trauma.

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS with colleagues

First peeling of the macular internal limiting membrane, revolutionizing surgery on the human center of vision  (AAO, 1990; Ophth Jan, 2004).

First proof that injured eyes with No Light Perception (NLP) can often be restored to useful vision, rather than being removed or abandoned (Vitreoretinal Surgery of the Injured Eye, Alfaro and Liggett, 1998).

First highly reliable (laser) prevention treatment for Retinal Detachment (EyeWorld, Feature Article, 1998; Ora Secunda Cerclage, American Society of Retina Specialists, 2002; Retina Today, 2008; J Cat Refrac Surg, May 2009;35(3):491-5).

First treatment to permanently resolve Diffuse Diabetic Macular Edema (Maculopexy, ARVO, 2012).