ASRS Presidents' Young Investigator Award
The Foundation has selected Yoshihiro Yonekawa, MD, FASRS, as the winner of the 13th annual ASRS Presidents’ Young Investigator Award. Dr. Yonekawa is a pediatric and adult retina surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital/Mid Atlantic Retina in Philadelphia, associate professor of ophthalmology at Thomas Jefferson University, and a visiting faculty member of Kyorin Eye Center in Tokyo.
The ASRS Presidents’ Young Investigator Award is given by the Foundation to honor past presidents of our Society by nurturing the development of next-generation retina leaders. It recognizes an ASRS member age 50 years or younger who has made substantial contributions to retina that will potentially improve our patients’ lives. The winner receives a $15,000 honorarium. We are grateful for support of this award through a grant from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Dr. Yonekawa and his colleagues at Wills Eye Hospital lead multiple research programs, with a focus on pediatric and adult vitreoretinal surgical techniques and outcomes. His research activities also include organizing numerous multicenter studies and big-data analyses, and serving as principal investigator in clinical trials.
He has contributed over 450 original papers, editorials, and textbook chapters to our field. Dr. Yonekawa is a section editor of the Journal of VitreoRetinal Diseases, associate editor of Graefe’s Archives of Experimental and Clinical Ophthalmology and OSLI Retina, assistant editor of Retina, and serves on the editorial boards of Review of Ophthalmology, Retina Today, and Journal of Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.
He is editor in chief of Retina Roundup and a section editor of several textbooks. As a member of the ASRS History of Retina Committee, Dr. Yonekawa co-chairs the written vignettes for Milestones in Retina, and he serves on the Practice Management Committee.
Dr. Yonekawa is a member of the ASRS Board and current president of the Vit Buckle Society. He also serves on the program committees of FujiRetina and Atlantic Coast Retina Club. Dr. Yonekawa has received the ASRS Presidential, Senior Honor, and Honor Awards and the ASRS Film Festival’s Rhett Buckler Award, as well as the Alcon Kirk Packo Award.
He has been included in The Ophthalmologist Power List of Rising Stars and Pennsylvania Medical Society Top Physicians, and has appeared for consecutive years as a Philadelphia Magazine and Castle Connolly top doctor.
About the Young Investigator Award
The ASRS Presidents’ Young Investigator Award is given by the Foundation to honor past presidents of our Society by nurturing the development of next-generation retina leaders. The winner receives a $15,000 honorarium. We are grateful for support of this award through a grant from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
The Young Investigator Award recognizes an ASRS member age 50 or younger who has made substantial contributions to the field of retina that will potentially improve the lives of our patients.
Eligibility Criteria
- 50 years of age or younger at the time the paper is published
- Member of the ASRS
- Must be first or senior author on the paper submitted for consideration
- Paper must be original and published in print or e-published in a peer-reviewed journal within the last 12 months.
- Individuals may nominate themselves or others may nominate them once the paper has been published.
- To be considered, nominees must submit the published paper, including all illustrations and online links, acknowledgement from senior author (if first author is applicant) or first author (if senior author is applicant) that candidate is in fact the primary investigator, a CV, and a paragraph summarizing the significance of their work.
Award Details
The Young Investigator Award is presented at the ASRS Annual Meeting. The recipient presents the Young Investigator Award Lecture and receives a $15,000 honorarium. Application materials are submitted online to ASRS through an online nomination form. The deadline for 2026 nominations was January 5, 2026.
Past Recipients
*Click here to learn more about these past recipients
2014 Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD
2015 Hendrik PN Scholle, MD, MA
2016 Jayakrishna Ambati, MD
2017 SriniVas R. Sada, MD,
2018 Rishi P. Singh, MD, FASRS
2019 Sophie J. Bakri, MD, FASRS
2020 Charles C. Wykoff, MD, PhD, FASRS
2021 Arshad M. Khanani, MD, MA, FASRS
2022 Justis P. Ehlers, MD, FASRS
2023 Aaron Y. Lee, MD, MSCI
2024 J. Peter Campbell, MD, MPH, FASRS
2025 Rajeev H. Muni, MD, MSC, FRCSC, FASRS