Rate My Professor James Chodosh

James Chodosh, MD, MPH, serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. He received his MD from Baylor College of Medicine in 1988, BA from Hampshire College in 1978, and MPH in Biostatistics from the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health in 2007. His training includes an ophthalmology residency at Baylor College of Medicine's Cullen Eye Institute (1992), a clinical fellowship in cornea and external diseases at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (1993), and postdoctoral research in virology and molecular biology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (1995). Chodosh's career trajectory encompasses faculty appointments at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center—where he held the M.G. McCool Chair in Ophthalmology and served as Chief of Cornea and External Diseases—and Harvard Medical School as the Edith Ives Cogan Professor of Ophthalmology, Associate Director of the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Service at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and Vice Chair for Education. Appointed in 2022 as UNM's inaugural permanent department chair, he has also chaired the FDA Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee, served on the NIH National Advisory Eye Council and Anterior Eye Disease Study Section, and co-edited the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Internationally renowned for research on viral genomics, adenovirus pathogenesis, and evolution—NIH-funded continuously since 1996 through 2027—Chodosh has pioneered keratoprosthesis advancements, directing Boston keratoprosthesis programs worldwide and inventing the patented low-cost Lucia keratoprosthesis for corneal blindness in low-resource countries. His clinical interests include ocular infections, chemical burns, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, and keratoprosthesis surgery. He has trained over 70 clinical cornea fellows and mentored more than 20 medical students from underrepresented groups. Notable honors include the Alcon Research Institute Award, Senior Achievement Award and Secretariat Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Gold Fellow of ARVO, Senior Scientific Investigator Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, and election to the American Ophthalmological Society. Author or co-author of over 360 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters—with more than 16,000 citations and an h-index of 69—key works include "Genomic foundations of evolution and ocular pathogenesis in human adenovirus species D" (FEBS Letters, 2019), "Infectious corneal ulceration: a proposal for neglected tropical disease status" (Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2019), and editor of "Advances in Detection and Treatment of Ocular Infections" (International Ophthalmology Clinics, 2011).