Rohit Varma, MD, MPH
Contact email: rvarma@usc.edu

Dr. Varma is Professor of Ophthalmology and Preventive Medicine, and Director of the Glaucoma Service, Ocular Epidemiology Center and the Clinical Trials Unit at the Department of Ophthalmology, at the USC Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Varma earned his medical degree at the University of Delhi, India and obtained a Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. He completed his Ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland and two glaucoma fellowships, one at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, and the other at the Doheny Eye Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. As Professor of Ophthalmology, he teaches and instructs fellows and residents twice a week when he sees glaucoma patients during clinic and surgery at the Doheny Eye Institute. Dr. Varma lectures on a regular basis nationally and internationally on relevant topics in the epidemiology of eye disease in children and adults. His primary research focuses on epidemiologic studies of eye disease in children and aging populations with grants funded through the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Varma is the principal investigator of the Los Angeles Latino Eye Study (LALES), the Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Diseases Study (MEPEDS), and the Chinese American Eye Study (CHES). He has edited two books and over 161 peer-reviewed papers. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the American Academy of Ophthalmology Honor Award in 1998, the Research to Prevent Blindness Sybil B. Harrington Award in 2003, American Academy of Ophthalmology Senior Achievement Award in 2006, the President’s Award-Glaucoma Research Foundation in 2009, and the ARVO Fellow Silver Award in 2009.