Images Magazine

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Julio Frenk, University of Miami President, and Tomas A. Salerno, chair of the Faculty Senate, honored HARRY W. FLYNN, JR., M.D., with the University’s 2019 Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award. Flynn, the J. Donald M. Gass Distinguished Chair in Ophthalmology, has performed clinical care, teaching and research at Bascom Palmer and the University of Miami for more than 40 years. He is recognized as a world leader in the care of patients with vitreoretinal diseases, such as retinal detachment, diabetic retinopathy, and severe infections of the eye.

Flynn has helped train hundreds of ophthalmology residents and retina fellows who now practice all over the world, including several ophthalmology chairs at other universities. He is author or co-author of more than 571 peer-reviewed publications, 106 book chapters and eight textbooks, and he has delivered 31 named lectures around the world.

Stephen G. Schwartz, M.D., professor of clinical ophthalmology and medical director of Bascom Palmer at Naples introduced Flynn as an early mentor. “If not for him, I wouldn’t be where I am at Bascom Palmer,” said Schwartz. “And, hundreds of others could tell you the same thing.”

At the award ceremony, Flynn said: “I stand on the shoulders of giants,” acknowledging Bascom H. Palmer, M.D., who performed the first-ever corneal transplant in Florida, and Edward W.D. Norton, M.D., his mentor who founded the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Flynn ended his remarks with “If you can enjoy what you do and have a positive impact, it doesn’t get any better.”