Vision Excellence Awards: Geoff Tabin

Dr. Tabin’s commitment to global ophthalmology and humanitarian care is infectious. He has inspired a generation of medical students, ophthalmology residents, colleagues and partners around the world to dedicate themselves to eradicating needless blindness within their lifetime. He has engaged with funders, foundations, University academic centers and programs, about the needs and opportunities that exist in global health, ophthalmic innovation, and data systems — all to foster excellence in global ophthalmology.

Through a deep love of both the academic and the clinical, Dr. Tabin dovetails his work at Stanford University with his work at the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP), the non-profit organization he co-founded in 1994 with Dr. Sanduk Ruit. Dr. Tabin spends one-third of the year in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia mentoring eye care providers with the goal of strengthening local capacity. He has devoted his life to eliminating needless blindness on the planet, not just through his own hands, but by teaching others and replicating what he has found to work in resource-limited environments over the last 25+ years.

Dr. Tabin is indefatigable in his passion for global ophthalmology. He is an energetic and passionate visionary driven by an internal timeline for change that is never fast enough—there is always someone in need of sight-restoring surgery. Over the course of Dr. Tabin’s career, he has personally been responsible for the care of thousands of patients and provided academic and professional mentorship to scores of US and international ophthalmic fellows.

Dr. Tabin is driven to make needless blindness obsolete, to ensure greater global access to eye care, and to elevate the standards of care around the world. Dr. Tabin has worked tirelessly to promote “A world in which nobody is needlessly visually impaired, where those with unavoidable vision loss can achieve their full potential.”