Dr. Girkin has authored or coauthored 200 journal articles, abstracts, and book chapters in major ophthalmic publications covering both neuro-ophthalmology and glaucoma. He has served on the editorial board for the American Journal of Ophthalmology, Journal of Glaucoma, Glaucoma Today, Focus on Glaucoma and as a guest editorial board member for Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. His active research program has brought over $9 million in extramural funding to the Department with research grant support as primary investigator from the National Eye Institute, The Glaucoma Research Foundation, Research to Prevent Blindness, Eyesight Foundation of Alabama. His area of investigation focuses on racial variation in clinical measures of optic disc structure and correlation to visual function along with basic research on the effects of age, race and glaucomatous injury on the morphology and biomechanical behavior of the lamina cribrosa and peripappilary sclera.

Dr. Girkin currently serves as Secretary for the American Glaucoma Society and chairs the Glaucoma Program Committee for Association for Vision Research and Ophthalmology for 2012. He has been awarded the American Glaucoma Society Clinician-Scientist Award for 2003 and 2004, the Research to Prevent Blindness Physician-Scientist Award for 2005, the Ronald Lowe Medal for 2008, and has been selected as one of the "Best Doctors in America" yearly from 2003 to 2012. He has served as an invited lecturer at numerous research and educational events, including recently chairing the AAO Subspecialty Day in Glaucoma, and has delivered over 230 lectures to ophthalmic practitioners and professionals throughout the United States and abroad.

Clinical Care:
Glaucoma: Surgical and Medical Management

Research:
Our current research programs focus on developing and evaluating a composite measure to better quantify glaucomatous damage based on quantitative optic disc topography and nerve fiber layer analysis using scanning laser polarimetry and optical coherence topography, along with electrophysiologic and psychophysical measures that emphasize specific retinal ganglion cell response characteristics. Our particular focus is in the under-studied African-American population, which is at much greater risk from blindness from glaucoma.

Our major bench research focuses on the development of three-dimensional digital reconstructions of the human optic nerve head that can be used to test the hypothesis that variation in 3D laminar architecture and biomechanical behavior are critical in determining individual susceptibility to glaucomatous injury. Specifically, that variation in laminar 3D architecture is associated with well described risk factors for glaucomatous disease such as increasing age and African-American ancestry.

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