Fight For Sight

Specialties

Since 1946, Fight For Sight has invested in the future of eye and vision research by funding promising scientists early in their careers. To date more than 3,000 women and men have received more than $ 20 million to support eye and vision research. Investigators working at more than 300 leading medical centers, universities and eye research institutes in the U.S., Canada and overseas have received FFS awards. Over the past 60 years, multiple generations of researchers and clinician-​scientists have received Fight for Sight grants early in their careers and gone on to serve as mentors and guides to the next generation of FFS awardees. Our list of recipients includes many current and past leaders in academic ophthalmology and eye and vision research.

History

Established in 1946.

Fight for Sight was founded by Mildred Weisenfeld, a young woman with retinitis pigmentosa, to encourage and fund research in ophthalmology, vision and related sciences. Fight for Sight helped create national awareness and funds for vision research outside of its own fundraising when Weisenfeld coordinated testimony on eye research to Congress in 1949, leading to the creation of the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Blindness, and later the establishment of the National Eye Institute (NEI) in the National Institutes of Health (NIH).