Adriana Di Polo, PhD, is a professor in the departments of neuroscience and ophthalmology at the University of Montreal and currently holds a Canada Research Chair in glaucoma and age-related neurodegeneration. She studies the mechanisms of retinal ganglion cell loss as well as neuroprotective and regenerative strategies for glaucoma.
Dr. Di Polo has received prestigious awards, including the Foundation Fighting Blindness Young Investigator Award, the 2017 Frank Stein and Paul S. May Award for Innovative Glaucoma Research, the 2019 Shaffer Prize from the Glaucoma Research Foundation, the 2020 Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize, and the 2023 Alcon Research Institute Senior award. She is an ARVO Gold Fellow (class of 2015) for her contributions to the vision research community.
Dr. Di Polo serves on many executive and scientific boards, including the National Institutes of Health Audacious Goals Initiative, BrightFocus Foundation, Glaucoma Research Foundation, Glaucoma Foundation, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Di Polo is deeply committed to teaching and training vision scientists at all levels of education. She has served on the Women in Eye and Vision Research committee (2017-2020), which offers networking and career development support for women from all over the world training in the field of eye and vision research. She is president of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (2023-2024).