Troilo Has Vision for SUNY and Oswego

Thinking outside the box helped Dr. David Troilo ‘80 create an interdisciplinary major that combined his interest in psychology with animal behavior and neuroscience. The freedom Oswego gave him to create his own course of study allowed him to go on to graduate study and a successful career in developmental visual neuroscience.

He hopes to return the favor. On a recent visit to campus, Troilo expressed the desire to work with SUNY Oswego and current students with an interest in healthcare careers to create a “pre-health’ course of study that would lead to a degree in optometry.

Now the provost of SUNY College of Optometry, Troilo returned to his alma mater to give the Science Today lecture in September. It was fitting, because as an undergraduate, he had made a connection at a similar type of guest lecture that helped propel his career in academe.

Oswego professors also helped pave the way for his lifelong interest in research, among them Leland Marsh and Peter Weber of biology. Marsh taught the young Troilo that the essence of research is creating new knowledge, while working alongside Weber in the lab gave him the hands-on experience that helped him grow.

Troilo’s love of neuroscience was cemented during his years at Oswego. “It stems from the work I did here,” he says. Two post-doctoral studies – at Oxford University and Cornell – would help his scholarship mature.

He has become one of the premier researchers in the country on the development of the eye from birth to maturity and the development of refractive state. His work can help the tens of millions of patients with refractive errors like myopia.

Now he has come full circle, with a key academic position at a SUNY school. His goal is to make SUNY Optometry one of the top five such schools in the country.

He also wants to make Oswego more competitive and sees cross-disciplinary studies as the way to do that. “Smaller schools like Oswego can do that more easily,” he says. “Take the strengths of different departments and combine them in creative ways.”

— Michele Reed

PHOTO CAPTION:
Dr. David Troilo ‘80, far left, talks with Dr. Fehmi Damkaci and Dr. Kestas Bendinskas, both members of the Oswego science faculty, following his Science Today Lecture in September.

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