Harris Ripps, PhD, DSc, FARVO, passed away Thursday, Sept. 18, at the age of 87. He and his wife Jeanne lived in Boca Raton, Fla.

ARVO President in 1986, Dr. Ripps received the Proctor Medal in 1982 for his work titled, "Night Blindness Revisited: From Man to Molecule." He was an ARVO Silver Fellow in Class of 2010 and Gold Fellow in Class of 2011.

He also has been honored for his research contributions through some of the most prestigious international and national awards in vision science, including the Edrige-Green Award of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Alcon Research Institute's highly selective Award of Excellence. His research - continually funded by NIH from 1975 through 2007 - included the study of the mechanisms by which retinal cells communicate with one another and also basic science investigations to identify the causes of visual loss in inherited retinal diseases. Dr. Ripps was a Distinguished University Professor who held the Charles I. Young / Lions of Illinois Endowed Chair of Ocular Research from 1985, when he joined the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, until his retirement from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Medicine in 2009.

Prior to his time at UIC, he held a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Robert A. Weale, Institute of Ophthalmology, University of London. He earned his PhD in Physiology and Bachelor of Science Degree at Columbia University.