Dr. Sommer is Professor of Epidemiology, International Health, and Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was the founding Director (1980-1990) of the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins, which focuses on clinical epidemiology and public health aspects of blindness prevention and child survival.
Sommer received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School (1967) and his Master of Health Science in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (1973).
Sommer's current research interests include outcomes ass esment; clinical guidelines; the screening, diagnosis and management of glaucoma and other blindness preventing strategies; and cost containment. He demonstrated the impact of vitamin A deficiency on childhood blindness and mortality in third world countries. His newest efforts concern the growing interface between medicine and public health. As founding chair of the Public Health and Quality of Care Committees, Sommer led the development of the American Academy of Ophthalmology's pioneering series of clinical guidelines ("Preferred Practice Patterns").
Sommer chairs or has chaired the World Health Organization's Program Advisory Group on Blindness Prevention, the NIH "National Eye Health Education Program," the Steering Committee of the International Vitamin A Consultative Group (IVACG), the Scientific Advisory Board of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and the Quality of Care and Public Health Committees of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is President of the International Federation of Eye Banks and serves or has served of the Board of Directors of the National Society to Prevent Blindness, the Executive Committee of Tissue Banks International, the Executive Board of the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness, the Advisory Committee to the International Council of Ophthalmology, and the Scientific Advisory Committee of Research to Prevent Blindness, to name but a few.
Sommer is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and of its Food and Nutrition Board.
Sommer has published 5 books and 250 scientific articles. He has received the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health; the Joseph E. Smadel Award for the Infectious Diseases Society of America;the American Public Health Association's Distinguished Service Award for Contributions to Vision Care; the Award for Distinguished Contributions to World Ophthalmology from the XXIV International Congress of Ophthalmology; the Gold Medal of the Saudi Ophthalmological Society; and is the first recipient of the GVF Prize of the German Association of Applied Vitamin Research.
Current Address
Dean
Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
615 N. Wolfe Street, Room 1041
Baltimore, MD 21205
PHONE: (410) 955-3540
FAX: (410) 955-0121
e-mail: asommer@phnet.sph.jhu.edu
