The lecture is supported by the Nathaniel E. Springer Memorial Fund, which was established in 1999 to bring distinguished visual scientists or clinicians to the School of Optometry to share knowledge with faculty and students.
The fund was created by members of the Springer family along with Donald Springer, OD, who was instrumental in the founding of the School of Optometry and a leader in optometry in Alabama and the U.S. along, in memory of Springer’s father Nathaniel E. Springer. Donald Springer died in 2011.
Distinguished Honorees
- 2023: Jill Autry, OD, RpH
- 2022: Leo Semes, OD
- 2021: Jeffrey Walline, OD, PhD
- 2020: Barbara Caffrey, OD, PhD
- 2019: Robert Rustein, OD
- 2018: Thomas Norton, PhD
- 2017: Christine Curcio, PhD
- 2016: Jimmy Bartlett, OD, DOS, ScD
- 2015: Lyndon Jones, PhD, FCAHS, FCOptom, FAAO
- 2014: Tarun Sharma, MD, FRCSEd, MBA
- 2013: Barry Weissman, OD, PhD
- 2012: Loretta Szczota-Flynn, OD, PhD
- 2011: Donald Mutti, OD, PhD
- 2010: Mitchell Schieman, OD
- 2009: Donald Korb, OD
- 2008: Mark T. Dunbar, OD
- 2007: Gregory Jackson, PhD
- 2006: Anthony Cavallerano, OD
- 2005: Stuart P. Richer, OD, MS, PhD
- 2004: V. Michael Patella, OD
- 2003: John G. Flannagan, MCOptom, PhD
- 2002: Thomas Freddo, OD, PhD
- 2001: Jerry Sebag, MD
- 2000: James Meyer, MD
- 1999: James J. Augsburger, MD