Ruth Lee and Phillips Thygeson Distinguished Professor
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, MD
National Eye Institute, HHMI-NIH, Bethesda, MD, Fellow
Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Residency Ophthalmology
F.I. Proctor Foundation, UCSF, Fellow, Cornea & External Diseases, and Uveitis
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UCSF, Fellow, Modeling of Infectious Diseases
Santa Fe Institute, Complex Systems, Summer School
Thomas M. Lietman, MD, is the Ruth Lee and Phillips Thygeson Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, and Director of the Francis I. Proctor Foundation at UCSF. His research centers on optimizing community treatment strategies for trachoma elimination through large-scale clinical trials and mathematical modeling. He has led major NIH-funded corneal ulcer studies, including the Steroids for Corneal Ulcers Trial (SCUT) and the Mycotic Ulcer Treatment Trials (MUTT I and II), as well as the Village-Integrated Eye Worker (VIEW) trial, a cluster-randomized trial assessing community health worker interventions to prevent corneal ulcers in Nepal. He served as principal investigator on the MORDOR trials, demonstrating that mass azithromycin distribution to preschool children reduced childhood mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, and the AVENIR trial, an adaptive cluster-randomized study in Niger that confirmed twice-yearly azithromycin distribution reduces mortality among children 1-59 months of age. A central focus of his work is balancing mortality benefits against the risks of antimicrobial resistance.