Aaron Y. Lee, MD, a nationally recognized WashU Medicine vitreoretinal surgeon and a leader in applying artificial intelligence (AI) to ophthalmology research and patient care, has been installed as the inaugural Arthur W. Stickle Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. Lee, a physician-scientist, is head of WashU Medicine’s John F. Hardesty, MD, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences.
He was installed by Chancellor Andrew D. Martin and David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of the School of Medicine. The professorship is designated for the head of ophthalmology department and was established by Arthur W. Stickle, MD, a pediatric ophthalmologist and former WashU Medicine clinical faculty member, and his wife, Emily.
“The Stickles’ generosity creates a lasting legacy that will advance vision research and patient care,” Martin said. “Dr. Lee’s work at the intersection of artificial intelligence and ophthalmology exemplifies the kind of innovation that defines WashU Medicine and that will benefit patients here in St. Louis and far beyond.”
Lee served on the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle for a decade before being recruited to WashU Medicine in 2025 to lead the ophthalmology department.
“We are fortunate to recognize Dr. Lee for his research and leadership in artificial intelligence,” Perlmutter said. “His recruitment signals our clear commitment to lead nationally and globally in applying artificial intelligence across all areas of medicine. We are taking our expertise in genomics and informatics and integrating it with AI technologies to further advance personalized medicine and have an enormous impact on the way we diagnose disease and care for patients.”
Early in his research career, Lee leveraged his medical training and computer programming expertise to assemble a pioneering team of machine learning scientists. His team was among the first to successfully apply deep learning techniques to vision science, helping to establish a new field of research in ophthalmic imaging.
His work has led to many innovations, including improving the ability of AI to assess the severity of age-related macular degeneration — a common retinal disease — based on retinal images. His work also has helped develop a novel severity score for macular telangiectasia type 2, a rare retinal disease that causes a gradual loss of vision. In addition, he has created foundational AI models that can be trained for various types of retinal imaging without a lot of additional data.
In recent work, he has used advanced data-driven methods to identify genetic factors influencing the formation of the macula, the central part of the retina. Together, these advances have greatly improved imaging techniques used to detect retinal diseases and are helping physicians identify disease earlier and tailor treatment more precisely.
Lee chairs the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) working group, which establishes standards for ocular imaging across the medical device industry. He also co-chairs the Ryan Initiative for Macular Research Age-Related Macular Degeneration Consortium, a nonprofit collaboration uniting life sciences companies, device manufacturers and academic groups to study age-related macular degeneration.
Lee has worked to create an ecosystem for the entire lifecycle of medical AI devices. This includes collaborating with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to develop policies for regulating machine learning tools, developing report guidelines for AI studies and running the first comprehensive multicenter study of autonomous AI devices for screening of diabetic eye disease.
With his wife and scientific partner, Cecelia Lee, MD, the Jane Hardesty Poole Distinguished Professor at WashU Medicine, he leads the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Bridge2AI Common Fund Data Generation Project, a four-year, $32 million effort to develop a flagship dataset from 4,000 participants for AI research in type 2 diabetes.
At the national level, he also chairs the Intelligent Research in Sight Registry Academic Consortium and the Steering Committee on Information Technology of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the latter of which has integrated big data and AI concepts into the core curriculum of ophthalmology residency programs nationwide.
After completing his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, Lee earned his medical degree from WashU Medicine in 2009 and was among the first WashU medical students to complete the school’s newly established Master of Science in Clinical Investigation, which prepares investigators for academic careers in clinical research. He completed his residency training at WashU Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital and a medical retina fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, followed by a surgical retina fellowship the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He joined the University of Washington faculty in 2015, becoming a full professor in 2024, before being recruited to lead the WashU Medicine ophthalmology department faculty.
About Emily and Arthur W. Stickle
Arthur Stickle, MD, came to WashU Medicine in 1943 to study ocular motility under the renowned late Richard Scobee, MD, and to complete his residency after graduating from the University of Oklahoma medical school. He later joined the clinical faculty as an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics and founded the St. Louis Eye Clinic, which eventually expanded to seven satellite offices across the metropolitan area.
Arthur Stickle became known nationally as a leading expert in the treatment of strabismus — the misalignment of the eyes — and is credited with developing new surgical treatments for the condition. He enjoyed teaching residents and played a pivotal role in the development of strabismus specialists in St. Louis. He served on the board of the American Association of Certified Orthoptists for many years. He retired in 1992 and died in 2010 at the age of 91.
Emily Stickle was a volunteer in several St. Louis organizations, including Volunteer Service Council, Girls Inc., Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Dance St. Louis. She died in 2023.
In 1995, the Stickles endowed the Arthur W. Stickle, MD, Lecture in Pediatric Ophthalmology, the first annual lecture created by a former member of the department.
