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Dr. Tony Adams was appointed Editor in Chief of Optometry & Vision Science in July 2004 for a five year term. He has been a Professor of Optometry and Vision Science (Physiological Optics) since 1968 and Dean of the School of Optometry 1992-2001 at the University of California, Berkeley (UCBSO). He has been a member of the University of California President's Health Sciences Committee since 1992. From 1987 to 2001, he served on the editorial boards of journals of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), Investigative Ophthalmology and Vision Science, AAO, Optometry & Visual Science and Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics and OAA Clinical & Experimental Optometry, and is past chairman of AAO's Research Committee. In 1998, he was elected Distinguished Practitioner in the National Academies of Practice in Optometry (NAPO) and awarded honorary doctoral degrees by the State University of New York (SUNY) in 2000 and Pennsylvania College of Optometry in 2001.

With NEI/NIH support over the past 26 years, Professor Adams has studied the early vision changes of diabetics and has revealed some of the earliest vision and retinal function changes of patients with diabetes. He was also Principal Investigator for an NEI/NIH five-year study of myopia development in children. He has been the research mentor of fifteen PhD graduates and a number of post-doctoral fellows in basic vision psychophysics and electrophysiology of visual disorders and has published more than 165 articles in refereed journals and nine book chapters dealing with applications of vision science to visual disorders (with primary focus on diabetes), visual performance, drug effects on vision, color vision, neurophysiology, the psychophysics of visual adaptation, and myopia development in children.

Dr. Adams was a member of the Board of Directors (formerly referred to as the Executive Council) of the American Academy of Optometry (AAO) 1991-2001 and served as President (1998 to 2000). He currently serves as Vice President of the American Optometric Foundation (AOF) Board, on the Board of Prevent Blindness America (PBA), and on the Boards of the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR) and as Vice President on the Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKERI) Board. In 2003 he received the American Academy of Optometry's highest award--the Prentice Medal, then in 2004 its Eminent Service Award. He previously received the first Glenn A. Fry Award and the Garland W. Clay Award from the Academy. In October 2004 he was elected to the National Optometry Hall of Fame and named Educator of the year by the California Optometric Association. Professor Adams was an appointed member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee on Vision and was chairman of an NAS working group which published the results of a four-year national study on the prevalence and progression of myopia. He is a past chairman of the Committee on Vision of the National Research Council (NRC).

From 1990 to 1993, he was a member of a panel of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; it developed national guidelines for the management of cataract in the aging eye and the published, Cataract in Adults: Management of Functional Impairment.

Dr. Adams is a recent member of the National Advisory Eye Council (1996-2000), a major consultative body for the Director of the National Eye Council (NEI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. He was appointed by the Acting Director of NIH to serve on the search for the new National Eye Institute Director appointed 2001. At UCB School of Optometry, he has been the NIH T32 Program Director of a PhD Training Grant in Vision Science since 1980 and Director of the T35 summer Research Training Grant for optometry students, both supported by NEI/NIH. He has also served on NIH study sections for review of vision research grant proposals and on NEI Policy Advisory Panels.

After completing optometric training in Australia in 1962, Professor Adams earned a PhD at Indiana University (Vision Sci. 1970, mentor- Gordon Heath) where he taught from 1966 to 1968. At UCBSO, he is a professor of optometry and vision science (since 1968), was Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs (1985 to 1992), and Dean of the School of Optometry (1992-2001). He directed the Graduate PhD Training Program in Physiological Optics (1974 to 1985).