Timothy W. Olsen, MD

Timothy W. Olsen, MD is originally from the heartland of the US, Nebraska and Kansas. He attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence for both undergraduate and medical school, graduating summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa and nominated AOA. Dr. Olsen completed his residency at the University of Minnesota and vitreoretinal fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta.

Dr. Olsen began his academic career in 1996 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1998, he was selected to found the Minnesota Lions Macular Degeneration Center at the University of Minnesota, and was awarded the William H. Knobloch Retina Chair. He served as the F. Phinizy Calhoun Sr. Professor, Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and Director of the Emory Eye Center from 2008-2016 where he recruited 58 key faculty and is now Chairman Emeritus. Dr. Olsen’s research is focused on AMD. He has developed devices, surgical instruments, pioneered posterior segment drug delivery using transscleral, suprachoroidal and aerosol-based drug delivery systems and has been well funded as a principle investigator (> $7.5M).

He has been designated a Top Doctor for 9 years in 4 cities and received six distinguished teaching awards from four Universities. His publication record includes over 141 peer-reviewed articles and 25 book chapters. He has given over 255 national or international lectures and honored with two inaugural named lectures, 12 named lectures, 31 keynote talks, and 32 visiting professorships. At the AAO, Dr. Olsen serves as the Secretary for Quality and chairs the Retina Preferred Practice Patterns (PPP). In the past, he has chaired the retina Maintenance of Certification (MOC), Practicing Ophthalmologist Committees (POC). Dr. Olsen serves on the executive committee for the AOS. He served as executive editor for 11 years with the American Journal of Ophthalmology (AJO) and currently serves on the editorial board for IOVS, RETINA, Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society (AOS) and the Yonsei Medical Journal (Seoul, South Korea). He has been awarded the Senior Achievement Award, the Secretariat Award by the AAO and is a Silver and Gold Fellow of ARVO.