Our eyesight is one of our most cherished senses, influencing our daily lives and overall well-being. Northwestern’s commitment to ophthalmology research fosters innovation in diagnostics, treatments, and surgical techniques. Breakthroughs in these areas can lead to improved patient outcomes and enhanced quality of life. Northwestern’s research programs also play a crucial role in educating the next generation of ophthalmologists and vision scientists. It is with great honor that we have those individuals paving future breakthroughs in our lab. These individuals will continue to push the boundaries of eye care and research, furthering the field’s progress. In collaboration with the Northwestern Department of Ophthalmology and the Interdepartmental Neuroscience (NUIN) PhD program, it gives Schwartz lab the opportunity to stand today.
Dr. Gregory W Schwartz is a Derrick T. Vail Professor of Ophthalmology, and the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience (NUIN) Director. He received a B.S./M.S. in Neuroscience and a B.A. in Computer Science from Brandeis University in 2003, where his thesis work investigated the influence of context in human recognition memory. Dr. Schwartz began studying visual processing in the retina during his graduate work in the laboratory of Michael J. Berry at Princeton University where he received his Ph.D. in 2008. Dr. Schwartz continued studying the retina as a post-doctorate fellow in the laboratory of Fred Rieke at the University of Washington where he also collaborated closely with Rachel Wong to link anatomical and functional measurements into bottom-up retinal circuit models. He began his independent career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine 2013 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019. He previously served as the NUIN Associate Director, Chair of the Admissions Committee, Director/Co-Director of 3 NUIN courses, and as a member of the NUIN Advisory Board.
Our Values
Open Science
We strive to share our ideas and our data as widely as possible. We do not believe in hiding our work for fear of competition, even in the early stages of a project. All manuscripts are posted on BioRxiv at the time of first submission, and we are involved in several efforts to create interactive web interfaces where you can browse and download our data and code.
The Humanity of Science
Scientific advances inevitably begin within someone’s imagination and are made a reality by increasingly large and diverse groups of people working together. Our first priority as a lab is, and always will be, to support the training of scientists, critical thinkers, and communicators. The papers, grants, discoveries, and individual recognitions are a means to this end, not the ends themselves. To reach our individual and shared goals, we strive to support each other as people. We believe that increasing diversity throughout academia is both a moral obligation and a path toward more innovative, creative, and sustainable science.