Linda Hazlett, Ph.D., distinguished professor and chair of Anatomy and Cell Biology for the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has been selected for a 2012 Alcon Research Award for her outstanding contributions in the field of vision research.

"It is indeed an honor to receive an Alcon Research Award 2012," Dr. Hazlett said. "I am very appreciative of being selected to compete for this award and to join a stellar group of awardees and past recipients of the award. I also wish to thank Gary Abrams, M.D., (professor of WSU Ophthalmology) for nominating me for this prestigious award."

The awards are presented by the Alcon Research Institute, a virtual institute that honors outstanding contributors to ophthalmic research throughout the world during a symposium that attracts elite eye researchers. Awardees also receive unrestricted research grants. Alcon develops, manufactures and markets surgical equipment and devices, pharmaceuticals and vision care products.

Dr. Hazlett said she will use the $100,000 grant to support a postdoctoral fellow in her lab. She will attend the symposium, set for March 7-9, 2013, in Boston, Mass.

"Dr. Hazlett's contributions to our understanding of vision and to the field of interdisciplinary-translational science has been extraordinary," said Bonita Stanton, M.D., vice dean of Research for the School of Medicine. "That her scientific accomplishments have been so substantial is all the more laudatory given her excellence as an administrator and teacher. Dr. Hazlett serves as a model academician in a class that can only be described as stratospheric."