Joe Carroll, PhD Named 2025 MCW Distinguished Service Award Recipient

The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences is thrilled to share Joseph Carroll, PhD, has been named a recipient of the 2025 MCW Distinguished Service Award. This is the institution’s highest honor for faculty and staff, recognizing exceptional dedication and contributions.

Dr. Carroll, is the Richard O. Schultz, MD/Ruth Works Professor in Ophthalmology and co-director of the Dennis P. Han, MD Advanced Ocular Imaging Program in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. He also is a professor of biophysics, professor of cell biology, neurobiology, and anatomy, and professor in the MCW and Marquette University joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Dr. Carroll received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from MCW in May 2002 (he served as president of the Graduate Student Association in 2000) and was a postdoctoral fellow in cell and developmental biology at MCW from June-December 2002. After further postdoctoral training in New York, Dr. Carroll returned to MCW in April 2006 as an assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and rose through the ranks to become a tenured professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences in April 2016.

Over his nearly 20-year career at MCW, Dr. Carroll has participated in several significant initiatives. He has been a member of MCW’s Institutional Review Board for 17 consecutive years. In 2008, he co-founded (with Dennis P. Han, MD) the Advanced Ocular Imaging Program (AOIP) – a significant advancement of biomedical engineering in adaptive optics in ophthalmology. The program is dedicated to improving the quality of life in individuals suffering from eye disease by combining innovative research with clinical expertise to improve the fundamental understanding, diagnosis, and management of ocular diseases. Dr. Carroll currently serves as co-director of the AOIP alongside Chris Langlo, MD, PhD, overseeing the program's overall management. The AOIP lab has been continuously funded by the NIH, individual donors, and eye foundations – garnering approximately $19 million since its inception.

Dr. Carroll’s research centers on a multidisciplinary approach to the human visual system, aiming to deepen our understanding of the relationship between structure and function in both health and disease. He primarily focuses on utilizing high-resolution imaging tools such as adaptive optics and optical coherence tomography to investigate the human retina. Further, his program encompasses a robust interest in comparative color vision, foveal development, visual neuroscience, and the behavioral dimensions of human color vision, including both normal and aberrant conditions.

Additionally, Dr. Carroll has made significant contributions to MCW's educational mission. From 2009 to 2013, he was involved with the Physician Scientist Pathway Council, which was pivotal in developing the pathways (now known as scholarly concentrations) program for medical students. More recently, he has co-directed the Clinical to Translational Research Concentration and currently co-directs the Basic to Translational Research Concentration. In 2015, Dr. Carroll helped outline the structure of the new joint Department of Biomedical Engineering. Further, he has served on the admissions committees for the School of Medicine for two years, the Neuroscience Doctoral Program for six years, and the Medical Scientist Training Program since 2008.

Dr. Carroll has mentored 59 medical students participating in the scholarly concentrations, medical student summer research programs, and the honors in research program, and guided 23 undergraduate students through the summer program for undergraduate research and other internship programs. Additionally, Dr. Carroll frequently lectures for various graduate and medical school courses and has actively supported the educational initiatives in the ophthalmology residency program.

Bridging his contributions to the education and research missions at MCW, Dr. Carroll has mentored a large number of PhD students, many of whom have gone on to impressive careers themselves. His work in the AOIP has trained researchers now at other institutions who have become his collaborators. Through his outstanding teaching, mentoring, and research, Dr. Carroll has greatly expanded the impact of his work in understanding the structure and function of the retina through his network of collaborators, which in turn has further strengthened the reputation of MCW.

Dr. Carroll has made remarkable achievements in ophthalmology, underscored by more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, 14,000 citations, and an impressive h-index of 68. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the most prestigious ophthalmology journal, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, and has served on numerous NIH study sections and editorial boards of prestigious scientific journals.

Dr. Carroll exhibits the type of humility and grace that makes him a role model for others. He is admired for his quiet generosity, promotion of others, and team-building efforts. Truly, Dr. Carroll embodies MCW’s values – particularly curiosity, integrity, and collaborative.