Steven E. Wilson, MD received a BA from California State University, Fullerton, an MS in molecular biology and biochemistry from the University of California, Irvine, and his MD from UC San Diego in 1984. He completed his ophthalmology residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1988, and was a fellow in cornea and refractive surgery at Louisiana State University Eye Center in New Orleans from 1988 to 1990. Dr. Wilson was assistant/associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas from 1990 to 1995. He was medical director of refractive surgery at the Cleveland Clinic from 1995 to 1998. From 1998 to 2003, he was chair of ophthalmology at University of Washington in Seattle. Since 2003 he has been professor of ophthalmology, staff refractive and corneal surgeon, and director of corneal research at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Wilson’s laboratory focuses on cellular and molecular interactions involved in corneal wound healing and has been funded by the National Eye Institute from 1992 to 2021. Dr. Wilson has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed medical and scientific publications. He has received numerous other awards, including the Lans Distinguished Lecturer Award from the International Society of Refractive Surgery (ISRS)-American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) in 2006, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Gold Fellow in 2009, the Lifetime Presidential Award from ISRS-AAO in 2009, the Richard L Lindstrom Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists Award Lecture at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting in 2013, and an ISRS Recognition Award in 2018. He was ARVO cornea trustee from 2001 to 2006 and served on the ISRS Executive Board from 1999 to 2008.
Wilson has published four adventure-thriller novels, most recently The Benghazi Affair in 2018, and his nonfiction memoir The Making, Breaking and Renewal of a Surgeon-Scientist in 2019, which was a Benjamin Franklin Award Audiobook of the Year Silver Awardee for 2020.
