Duke Eye Center vitreoretinal surgery fellow Linus Shen, MD, has been selected as one of four recipients of the 2026 Ronald G. Michels Fellowship Foundation Award, a prestigious national honor recognizing outstanding vitreoretinal surgery fellows.
The award supports fellows who have demonstrated exceptional achievement and promise in clinical care, research, and academic leadership within the field of retina.
Shen's academic interests include retinal imaging, artificial intelligence, clinical trial design, surgical innovation, medical device development, geographic atrophy, and inherited retinal diseases. Throughout his training, he has authored or co-authored more than 55 peer-reviewed publications, including more than 30 as first author.
Originally from China, Shen came to Duke University to study biomedical engineering, where his interest in retina research began through work in intraoperative optical coherence tomography (OCT) with mentors Joseph Izatt, PhD, and Cynthia Toth, MD. He earned his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine, completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and is currently completing his vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at Duke Eye Center.
After fellowship, Shen will return to UCSF as a retina specialist and faculty member in 2027, where he plans to establish the Precision Retinal Imaging and Machine Learning in Eye Health (PRIME) Lab. His work will focus on advancing retinal imaging research and leveraging artificial intelligence to improve patient care and accelerate therapeutic development.
The Ronald G. Michels Fellowship Foundation Award is among the most distinguished recognitions for vitreoretinal surgery fellows in the United States and highlights the next generation of leaders in retina research, education, and patient care.