The Marshall M. Parks Medal

2009 Silver Medalist

Alan B. Scott, MD

A consummate teacher, astute observer and innovative thinker, he morphed medical complications and toxic effects into beneficial therapies. Duly credited with pioneering the use of bupivacaine and botulinum toxin in strabismus, blepharospasm, torticollis, and general medicine.

Alan B. Scott Headshot

Biography

Alan Scott is a native Californian. He obtained an AB in Medical Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MD from the University of California, San Francisco. He left the Bay Area for two years and headed to the University of Minnesota for a surgical internship and a year of residency in Neurosurgery. He then returned to Stanford University and an Ophthalmology Residency.

A founding member of the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, he was a Senior Scientist and Co-Director for 22 of the Institute’s most productive years. He was for some years Vice-Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the California Pacific Medical Center.

Dr. Scott is duly credited with introducing the use of Botulinum Toxin to Ophthalmology and the rest of Medicine. Literally, he created botulinum toxin as a product, and was the first to use it to treat strabismus, blepharospasm, torticollis, and leg spasm. Obtaining FDA approval and license for the drug, he manufactured it for 2 years, before turning it over to Allergan in order to go back to research and clinical practice. Altogether, this process took 19 years!

Dr. Scott is a scientific reviewer of a number of ophthalmic journals and the author of a multitude of original scientific papers, abstracts, editorials, and book chapters. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and has received several prestigious awards, such as the Howe Medal of the American Ophthalmological Society, the Proctor Medal of the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the Linksz Medal of the International Strabismological Association, and the Senior Honor Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He has delivered highly coveted named lectures such as the Harvey Thorpe Lecture, the Frank D. Costenbader Lecture of the American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology, and Strabismus and the Marshall M. Parks Lecture of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The consummate authority and teacher, he is internationally recognized as an authority in Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. Dr. Scott continues productive work both clinically and experimentally. With closure of Smith-Kettlewell research labs, he started the Strabismus Research Foundation in 2013. Major projects are: [1] correcting strabismus and ptosis by bupivacaine injection to strengthen eye muscles; [2] functional electric stimulation of the eye muscles, currently focused on the Levator to open eyelids for blepharospasm patients. Like so many of his prior contributions, this work is illustrative of his innovative thinking and research.

Alan is married to Jackie Lehmer, best friend of his first wife, Ruth. When Dr. Scott is not in his lab or practice, he can be found playing a round of golf, enjoying music, traveling, or cooking with her in the home that he designed and built. All of us are devoted to Alan for his kind and thoughtful teaching, remarkable intellectual efforts, and highly infectious joy of life. No one is more deserving of the Marshall M. Parks Silver Medal than is Alan Scott. Countless patients have benefited from his ability to convert clinical problems and dilemmas into opportunities.