Dr. Robert Ritch holds the Shelley and Steven Einhorn Distinguished Chair in Ophthalmology and is Surgeon Director and Chief of Glaucoma Services at the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary, New York City and Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at The New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York. He has devoted his career to broadening our understanding of the nature of glaucoma and innovation in the medical, laser, and surgical treatment of glaucoma.

Dr. Ritch received his B.A. cum laude from Harvard College and an M.A. in cell biology from Harvard University. He received his M.D. from Albert Einstein School of Medicine and, after an internship at St. Vincent's Medical Center and a residency in Ophthalmology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, he received fellowships in glaucoma from the Heed Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. A Diplomate of the American Board of Ophthalmology, he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American College of Surgeons, the International College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Ophthalmology, and the New York Academy of Medicine, and is a member of more than 30 scientific and medical societies.

Dr. Ritch has been President of the Ophthalmic Laser Surgical Society, the New York Glaucoma Society, the Section on Ophthalmology of the New York Academy of Medicine, and the New York Society for Clinical Ophthalmology. He serves on numerous medical and scientific advisory and editorial boards and is a member of the Glaucoma Committee of the International Congress of Ophthalmology, the Steering Committee of the Association of International Glaucoma Societies, the Board of Directors of Helen Keller International, and the Board of Governors of the International Society for Imaging in the Eye.

In 1996, Dr. Ritch received the Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Ophthalmologist of the Year award and in 1998, the Gold Medal of Merit and Honor from the Greek Glaucoma Society and the Ophthalmology Times Achievement in Ophthalmology Award. In 1999, he was one of the winners of the Louis Rudin Award for research in ophthalmology. In 2000, he received the Jesse H. Neal Award for Editorial Achievement. In 2002, Dr. Ritch was appointed to the Advisory Committee of the International Council of Ophthalmology and in 2003, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology and in 2006 was elected Vice-President. In 2006 he was also recipient of the Albion O. Bernstein, MD Award of the Medical Society of the State of New York for outstanding contributions to medicine. In 2007, he received the Leadership in Educuation in Ophthalmology (LEO) Award and is the current recipient of the New York Medical College Distinguished Research Award.

Dr. Ritch has co-authored five textbooks and over 1200 medical and scientific papers, book chapters, articles and abstracts. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the New York site of the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study. In 1985, he founded the Glaucoma Foundation and has served as Secretary, Medical Director, and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board. In 1994, he initiated the annual Optic Nerve Rescue and Regeneration Think Tank, which has attracted successful researchers in other fields into glaucoma. He also co-founded the New York Glaucoma Research Institute, a not-for-profit foundation to sponsor clinical research in glaucoma, the alt.support.glaucoma Internet newsgroup, the New York Glaucoma Support and Education Group, and the Association of International Glaucoma Patient Organizations. He was co-founder of the Ophthalmic Laser Surgical Society, the New York Glaucoma Society, the Lindberg Society, an international organization dedicated to the eradication of exfoliation syndrome, the most common known cause of glaucoma, and the Curran Society, an international organization devoted to angle-closure glaucoma. Dr. Ritch has trained over 100 clinical and research fellows, many of whom occupy academic positions worldwide. He has worked and lectured extensively at the International level and has organized numerous symposia and conferences both in the United States and abroad. He is a member of the International Task Force of the American Telemedicine Association and the International Assistance Steering Committee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, from which he has received the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has organized meetings, established teaching programs and helped to modernize ophthalmology in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Laos, Myanmar and other countries in Asia.