Abstract
Christine A. Curcio, PhD, and Cynthia Owsley, PhD, MSPH, have been jointly honored with the 2025 Proctor Medal by ARVO. This distinguished award recognizes their 40 years of pioneering contributions to vision science and ophthalmology, especially in uncovering the early stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Their unique collaboration has effectively connected basic neuroscience with clinical psychophysics, greatly transforming scientific and clinical approaches to the early detection and prevention of AMD. In their Proctor Medal Lecture, titled "The Science of Rod-Mediated Dark Adaptation, an Outcome Measure for Age-Related Macular Degeneration," Drs. Curcio and Owsley combined insights from two research careers on retinal biology, visual function, aging, and AMD.