Crystal Apple Award
The Crystal Apple is a special recognition that is presented to an ASRS member who has gone to great lengths to advance the education and professional development of young vitreoretinal specialists. In addition to receiving the award, each year's recipient also presents a distinguished lecture during the Early Career Section's Annual Meeting luncheon.
2022 Crystal Apple Award Winner
The ASRS Early Career Section (ECS) has selected Sharon Fekrat, MD, FACS, FASRS, as the winner of the 2022 Crystal Apple Award for excellence in teaching and mentorship.
Dr. Fekrat is a professor of ophthalmology and neurology and an associate professor of
surgery at Duke University School of Medicine, where she is also vice chair of the School of Medicine Promotions/Tenure Committee, past retina fellowship director, and past director of faculty mentoring. She is also a vitreoretinal surgeon at Duke Eye Center of Duke University Health System and Private Diagnostic Clinic.
The Crystal Apple Award is a special recognition presented to an ASRS member who has gone to great lengths to advance the education and professional development of young vitreoretinal specialists. Dr. Fekrat has trained over 50 retina fellows, 130 residents and numerous medical students; in the last 5 years, her mentees have won more than 25 research awards.
She has been on the Duke faculty since completing her residency and vitreoretinal fellowship at Johns Hopkins’ Wilmer Eye Institute, where she was the first female assistant chief of service and director of ocular trauma to be on-call 24-7-365. Dr. Fekrat also has held various leadership roles at Duke’s Veterans’ Affairs affiliate, including
chief of ophthalmology and interim chief of surgery (leading 80 Duke surgeons). She is currently associate chief of staff.
Dr. Fekrat has coauthored nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications and more than 50 textbook chapters and has an h-index of 31. She is chief editor of All About Your Eyes, Duke Manual of Vitreoretinal Surgery, and
Curbside Consultation in Retina. Dr. Fekrat sits on the editorial boards of Retina Times, Ophthalmology Times, OSLI Retina, and Retinal Physician and is an executive editor of the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
She is the recipient of many awards; Dr. Fekrat was the first woman to receive the Ronald Michels Award and has been inducted into the Retina Hall of Fame.
In addition to her prolific work on retinal vein occlusion, Dr. Fekrat leads iMIND, an international multidisciplinary clinical research team evaluating multimodal retinal and choroidal imaging for diagnosing neurodegenerative diseases and building machine-learning models to identify these conditions.
Past recipients:
2021 - R.V. Paul Chan, MD, MSc, MBA, FACS
2020 - Caroline R. Baumal, MD
2019 - Seenu M. Hariprasad, MD
2018 - Audina M. Berrocal, MD
2017 - James Folk, MD and Lawrence Yannuzzi, MD
2016 – Lee Jampol, MD
2015 – Hugo Quiroz-Mercado, MD
2014 – Alexander J. Brucker, MD
2013 – Daniel Martin, MD
2012 – Dean Eliott, MD
2011 – Allen C. Ho, MD
2010 – Andrew P. Schachat, MD
2009 – Robert C. Watzke, MD
2008 – Stanley Chang, MD
2007 – Michael T. Trese, MD
2006 – Harry W. Flynn, Jr., MD
2005 – William Mieler, MD
2004 – Julia A. Haller, MD
2003 – Paul Tornambe, MD
2002 – Not given
2001 – George Williams, MD
2000 – Eugene de Juan, Jr, MD
1999 – Kirk Packo, MD