AOPT History and Past Meetings
The Birth of AOPT
The idea of creating the Association for Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics (AOPT) emerged during the 1989 ARVO meeting when Drs. George Chiou, Vincent Lee, Hitoshi Shichi met in a restaurant. Dr. George Chiou brought the matter up for discussion at the International Symposium on Ocular Pharmacology in Taipei in 1990.
In 1993, Dr. Chiou successfully organized the Symposium on Ocular Pharmacology in Novi, MI, with 58 attendees. The need for the AOPT was generally acknowledged, and a small group of volunteers was formed to carry out the mission of organizing the association.
Four committees were created to initiate the task, as follows:
Steering Committee: Dr. Vincent Lee (Chair) Dr. George Chiou
Bylaws Committee: Dr. Herbert Kaufman (Chair), Dr. Abhay Joshi, Dr. Vincent Lee
Publicity Cornmittee: Dr. Vincent Lee (Chair), Dr. Craig Crosson, Dr. David Woodward
Membership Benefit Committee: Dr. Paul Ashton (Chair), Dr. George Chiou, Dr. Hitoshi Shichi, Dr. David Potter.
In October, 1993, Dr. Vincent Lee resigned as Chair of the Steering Committee because of his busy work schedule. As Dr. Chiou was equally busy and unable to assume the chairship, Dr. Shichi took over the leadership with the promise of Dr. Chiou’s full support. Meanwhile, Dr. Kaufman had the draft of the bylaws circulated among the nine committee members, and the AOPT as a non-profit organization was officially filed and registered in Michigan by Dr. Shichi. A letter of invitation to join the AOPT, signed by all nine volunteer members, was sent out in April, 1994 to individuals who might be interested in joining. We were delighted to see enthusiastic responses from most of the people to whom the letters were sent, and, as of January, 1995, have 112 members of the ARVO.
Mail ballots were sent to the members to elect officers. The results are as follows:
President: Dr. George Chiou
Vice-President: Dr. David Lee
Secretary/Treasurer: Dr. Hitoshi Shichi
Trustees: Dr. Peter Kador, Dr. Herbert Kaufman, Dr. Arthur Neufeld
During the 1994 ARVO meeting, a decision was made to have the First Annual Meeting of the AOPT on January 26-29, 1995 in New Orleans, to be hosted by Dr. Herbert Kaufman. Due to the very short time span of only 8 months, Dr. Chiou was given the task of organizing the meeting immediately. It was a great pleasure to see the successful realization of the first meeting with 65 members and guests registered, 45 abstracts presented, and 122 persons involved as authors/co-authors of the abstracts.
| Meeting | Date | Location | Organizer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sixteenth Meeting | August 10–13, 2023 | Indianapolis, IN | Padmanabhan P Pattabiraman |
| Sixteenth Meeting Satellite Meeting | August 12–13, 2023 | Shenyang, China | Wei He |
| Fifteenth Meeting | March 4–7, 2021 | Miami (Virtual) | Sanjoy Bhattacharya |
| Fourteenth Meeting | March 7–10, 2019 | New Orleans, LA | Shusheng Wang |
| Thirteenth Meeting | Feb 16–19, 2017 | Florence, Italy | Filippo Drago |
| Twelfth Meeting | Feb 26–Mar 1, 2015 | Charleston, SC | Daniel Stamer |
| Eleventh Meeting | February 7–10, 2013 | Alicante, Spain | Juana Gallar Martinez |
| Tenth Meeting | February 17–20, 2011 | Ft. Worth, TX | Tom Yorio / Abbot Clark |
| Ninth Meeting | February 18–21, 2009 | Salzburg, Austria | Herbert Reitsamer |
| Eighth Meeting | February 9–11, 2007 | San Diego, CA | John Liu / Achim Krauss |
| Seventh Meeting | February 3–5, 2005 | Catania, Sicily, Italy | Filippo Drago |
| Sixth Meeting | February 1–4, 2003 | Kona, HI | Peter Kador |
| Fifth Meeting | November 2–5, 2000 | Birmingham, AL | Jimmy Bartlett |
| Fourth Meeting | January 28–31, 1999 | Irvine, CA | Achim Krauss |
| Third Meeting | October 22–24, 1997 | Bethesda, MD | Peter Kador |
| Second Meeting | August 15–17, 1996 | Los Angeles, CA | David Lee |
| First Meeting | January 26–29, 1995 | New Orleans, LA | Herb Kaufman |
| Ocular Pharmacology Symposium | August 8–10, 1993 | Novi, MI | Hitoshi Shichi |