Seattle, WA, United States
Jay Neitz, PhD, is the E.K. Bishop Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is internationally recognized for his pioneering work on the genetic and neural foundations of human color vision and its disorders. Over more than three decades, Dr. Neitz has combined genetics, neuroscience, and psychophysics to uncover how the retina encodes color and lightness and how these processes can be harnessed to improve human vision. Together with his long-time collaborator, Dr. Maureen Neitz, he developed the first gene therapy to restore color vision in primates and co-authored the fourth edition of the Hardy–Rand–Rittler (HRR) color-vision test, one of the world’s most widely used clinical tools. Dr. Neitz’s laboratory also investigates myopia, leading to the development of contrast-based optical designs for myopia control now in clinical use. His translational approach has bridged basic neuroscience with real-world applications that protect and enhance sight. He has published more than 150 scientific papers in top journals, including Nature, Science, and PNAS, and has received major international honors such as the Ludwig von Sallmann Prize, the Edridge-Green Medal of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, and the Pepose Award in Vision Science.
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Thursday, February 26, 2026
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM EDT