Kevin C. Chan, PhD

I am the director of the Neuroimaging and Visual Science Laboratory at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. My laboratory focuses on developing and applying new, noninvasive methods for imaging degeneration, development, protection, plasticity, and regeneration in the visual system. We aim to better understand interactions among the eye, the brain, and behavior in health and disease in order to guide vision preservation and restoration.

I have over 15 years of experience in structural, metabolic, and functional imaging research of the eye and the brain in humans and animal models of glaucoma and other visual impairments.

I completed my doctoral studies in biomedical engineering (neuroimaging) at the University of Hong Kong and was awarded the Li Ka Shing Prize for the best PhD thesis. I am a junior fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) since 2010, and was a Fulbright scholar in 2009–10. I received the Alcon Research Institute Young Investigator award in 2014 and the BrightFocus Foundation National Glaucoma Research award in 2013, 2016, and 2019. In 2015 I was selected by the Alliance for Eye and Vision Research as an emerging vision scientist. In 2018 I received the Research to Prevent Blindness/Stavros Niarchos Foundation International Research Collaborators award and the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement award. In 2019 I received the Thomas R. Lee Award for Glaucoma Research. In 2020 I received the Feldstein Medical Foundation Research Award.

I currently serve as the deputy editor of the neuroimaging section of the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, associate editor of Frontiers in Neuroscience - Brain Imaging Methods section, associate editor of the biomedical imaging and image processing section for the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, and editorial board member of Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery and Neural Regeneration Research. I also serve as the vice-chair of the ISMRM Publications Committee (2018–21), as well as Chair of multidisciplinary ophthalmic imaging group (2020–21), member of the Annual Meeting Program Committee (2018–21), member of Publications Committee (2020–23), member of Advocacy and Outreach Committee (2021–24), and member of Global Members Committee (2022–25) of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

We have several ongoing projects in our lab:

The Glaucoma Neuroimaging and Neurotherapeutics in Humans and Experimental Animal Models project focuses on widespread brain involvement and clinical and behavioral relevance, early detection and disease progression, and vision preservation and restoration.

The Neural Basis of Sensory Substitution in the Blind project focuses on tactile vision and sound vision, top-down modulation, cross-modal plasticity in different stages of vision loss, multisensory integration and training, and experimental modeling.

The Ocular Structures and Physiology project involves the study of aqueous humor dynamics, retinal pathophysiology, microstructures and macromolecules in the sclera and cornea, ocular biomechanics, controlled ocular drug delivery, and ocular reconstruction including whole-eye transplantation.

In the MR Engineering and Methods Development for the Visual System project we study contrast-enhanced MRI (manganese, gadolinium, iron oxide nanoparticles, and chromium, among others), diffusion MRI, functional MRI, MR spectroscopy, susceptibility-weighted MRI, and magic angle–enhanced MRI for the eye and the brain.