Dr. Michael A. Callahan served as secretary of the International Retinal Research Foundation from its inception in 1997 until elected as its president in 2004 and again for 2009-10.

Dr. Callahan has continued a tradition of excellence in providing eye care to Birmingham, the State of Alabama, and the adjacent southeastern states for the past 28 years. He received his B.A. at Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama. His M.D. degree was earned at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, with an internship at the University Hospitals and Clinics. An ophthalmology residency was completed at the University of California in San Francisco, and in 1975, Dr. Callahan accepted Fellowships in Pediatric Ophthalmology at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, and in phacoemulsification and insertion of intraocular lenses under the direction of Charles D. Kelman, M.D. at the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital in New York.

Since 1998, Dr. Callahan has held a faculty position as Professor of Ophthalmology in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and for more than two decades has taught the intricate surgical procedures of phacoemulsification and intraocular lens insertion as part of the curriculum for the UAB Ophthalmology Residency Program. Also in his teaching capacity, Dr. Callahan lectures on ophthalmic plastic surgery.

In the early eighties, Dr. Callahan participated in the ORBIS program, a "flying operating room," performing surgery and teaching local surgeons the latest surgical procedures and deomonstrating new surgical instruments. Countless hours were donated in this service while working in remote areas as Casablanca and Marrakech, Morocco; Jamaica; Kenya Nairobi, South Africa; Bangkok Thailand; and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Callahan has published over 100 articles and chapters in medical journals and surgical textbooks. He has authored two eye surgical textbooks, one of which has been translated into Japanese. He designed and produced an exhibit, Ask the Experts, for the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, which travels over the United States as a resource to physicians.

In addition to his thriving private practice, UAB faculty appointment duties, and charity work, Dr. Callahan devotes time as an active member of the Board of Directors of the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama and the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital at UAB.

Michael A. Callahan, M.D.

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In 2005, Dr. Callahan (above) embarked on another international mission to Managua, Nicaragua (his third consecutive year) to perform surgery on the indigent of that country and to teach surgical techniques that will benefit all Nicaraguans.