**About the Editors**

**Steven J. Pittler** is a professor at the Department of Optometry and Vision Science, a senior scientist and director of the Vision Science Research Center, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Ophthalmology and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. He received his undergraduate training in biochemistry from Michigan State University (1983). He completed his doctoral studies in Biochemistry at Michigan State University (1989), after which he was an NRSA Neurobiology Postdoctoral Fellow (Ocular Molecular Genetics) at Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine. In 1991, he was an assistant professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of South Alabama. In 1995, he became Director of the Center for Eye Research, at the College of Medicine, University of South Alabama. Moreover, in 1995, Dr. Pittler was the recipient of the Cogan Award for excellence in vision research from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He came to the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 1999, and was promoted to the rank of professor in 2000. In 2013, he received the National Eye Institute Audacious Idea Award.

**Steven J. Fliesler** is a SUNY Distinguished Professor, UB Distinguished Professor, the Meyer H. Riwchun Endowed Chair Professor of Ophthalmology, and Vice-Chair/Director of Research in the Department of Ophthalmology, State University of New York (SUNY)—University at Buffalo (UB). He also holds concurrent appointments as a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UB, as well as being a Department of Veterans Affairs Research Career Scientist at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, VA Western NY Healthcare System. Dr. Fliesler obtained a PhD in biochemistry from Rice University, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cullen Eye Institute/Baylor College of Medicine, and was previously on the faculties of Baylor College of Medicine, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute/University of the Miami School of Medicine, and the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, prior to joining the faculty of SUNY—University at Buffalo in 2008. His research is focused on inborn errors of cholesterol and isoprenoid metabolism and their impact on the development, structure and function of the retina, as well as on blast injury to the eye, using animal models. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and review articles, and is the editor of two books. His research program has been funded continuously for more than 35 years by multiple grants from the NEI/NIH and private foundations, as well as, more recently, MERIT Awards from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Fliesler recently served on the Board of Trustees of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), representing the Retinal Cell Biology (RC) Section, as well as being President and immediate past President of ARVO. In 2009, he was inducted as a Silver-tier Fellow of ARVO (FARVO) and, in 2014, became a Gold-tier FARVO. In addition, he is a past councilor for North America, and Treasurer and President of the International Society for Eye Research (ISER). Dr. Fliesler is the Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Eye Research and serves on six other journal editorial boards, including Molecular Vision and the Journal of Lipid Research.
