Research Day 2026
Our Research Day will be held on May 15, 2026
The Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences holds an annual Research Day to showcase the outstanding research conducted by our graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and residents over the past year.
Please join us on Friday, May 15th, 2026 for the Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Research Day held at the Learning Centre - Robbins Pavilion, Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Stephen P. Kraft, MD, FRCSC, staff ophthalmologist in the Departments of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, practising paediatric ophthalmology with a specialty interest in strabismus, and at the University Health Network in Toronto, specializing in adult strabismus and botulinum treatment of dystonia and strabismus.
Dr. Stephen P. Kraft, graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1978. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at the University of Toronto in 1982. His fellowships in paediatric ophthalmology and strabismus included one year (1982-83) at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, under Drs. William Scott and Frank Judisch, and 6 months (Nov. 1983-Apr. 1984) in San Francisco, California at the Smith-Kettlewell Institute and Pacific Medical Center, under Drs. Arthur Jampolsky and Alan Scott.
He is Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, having been promoted in 2001. His research interests include clinical and surgical advances in strabismus, diagnosis of amblyopia, botulinum toxin therapy of strabismus and neurologic disorders, and children’s vision development.
Dr. Kraft has published 113 peer-reviewed papers and 48 book chapters, and he has given 429 presentations all over the world. In November, 2018, Dr. Kraft gave the 48th Richard Scobee Memorial Lecture of the American Association of Certified Orthoptists, and he was the fifth John Pratt-Johnson Lecturer of The Canadian Orthoptic Society (TCOS). In June 2024, he gave the 16th Alfred Bielschowsky Lecture of the International Strabismological Association (ISA), and in July 2024 he gave the 5th Keynote Strabismus Lecture of the World Society of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (WSPOS). He is the first Canadian selected to give either the ISA or WSPOS keynote addresses.
Among his presentations were several other named lectures, including the Roger Trimble Lecture (BISA), Robert Letson Lecture (U Minnesota), second Burton Kushner Medallist Lectureship (AAO/U Wisconsin), von Noorden Lecture (Baylor U), Angeline Parks Lecture (Costenbader Society), Arthur Jampolsky Lecture (Smith- Kettlewell Inst.), the Strabos Lecture (São Paulo) and the William Scott Visiting Professorship (U Iowa). In May, 2024 he gave the inaugural Richard Saunders Lecture (Charleston, SC). In April, 2025 he gave the annual Jack Crawford Lecture at the annual Crawford Day meeting at Toronto SickKids.
Dr. Kraft has trained 190 part-time and full-time fellows in strabismus and paediatric ophthalmology from over 40 countries, and he has been a visiting professor on 58 occasions. He has received numerous clinical and surgical teaching awards from the graduating Toronto residents, as well as teaching awards from the University of Toronto undergraduate medical students. He has received the Honor Awards of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS).
Finally, he is the only Canadian member of the Association for Research in Strabismus (“Squint Club”) of North America, a 70-year-old specialty society with a limited membership and with admission only by invitation.