I Origins
2016

The Little Theatre Rochester, NY

with

Dr. Steven E. Feldon

Director, Flaum Eye Institute

I Origins— The Science of Sight

A conversation on the science of sight.

The Little Theatre Rochester, NY

Film Synopsis

A molecular biologist and his laboratory partner uncover evidence that may fundamentally change society as we know it.

Ian Gray (Michael Pitt), a PhD student studying molecular biology with a specialty in eye evolution, leaves his lab to go to a party and has an intense, but fleeting, encounter with a mysterious, masked model (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) who escapes into the night. With only a picture of her stunning and iconic eyes, he tracks her down, and they fall in love. Their fundamentally different beliefs about life only serve to intensify their connection, and they vow to spend forever together. Years later, Ian and his lab partner, Karen (Brit Marling), make a stunning discovery with profound existential implications. He must risk his life's work and his family to travel across the world to find the truth behind what he has found and what it may mean.

About the Speaker

Dr. Steven E. Feldon is an internationally acclaimed clinical and basic scientist with a specialty in orbital disease and neuro-ophthalmology. In 2001, he was appointed chair of the University of Rochester Department of Ophthalmology, and is now director of the Flaum Eye Institute.

Devoted to patient care, Dr. Feldon's special interest is in the management of patients with thyroid-associated eye disease. Cranial nerve palsies, disorders of the optic nerve, visual field loss, and eye movement problems are all specialty areas. He offers surgical services for orbital tumors, reconstruction, and decompression, as well as paralytic strabismus and correction of abnormalities. Now leading a world-class team of eye care specialists, his clinical expertise has been recognized in "Best Doctors in America."

Before coming to Rochester, Dr. Feldon served as associate chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Southern California and vice president of the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles.

An inventor of ophthalmic instruments and a scientific investigator, Dr. Feldon is involved in a number of local and national clinical trials and basic science collaborations. He oversees a productive relationship between the University of Rochester and Bausch & Lomb, leveraging joint resources to advance scientific knowledge in the field of ophthalmology and helping to establish Rochester as one of the nation's top 10 centers for eye research and clinical care.

Dr. Feldon earned his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his residency at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, Harvard University, along with a research fellowship in neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a clinical fellowship in neuro-ophthalmology at the University of California Medical Center, San Francisco. He is the former president of the North American Neuro-Ophthalmic Society.