Jennifer K. Sun, MD, MPH

Dr. Jennifer Sun is anAssociate Professor in the Harvard Department of Ophthalmology, graduated from Harvard College andHarvard Medical School, and completed ophthalmology residency and a vitreoretinal surgical fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. 

From 2005-2009 she was the first program participant in the Harvard Vision Clinical Scientist K12 program and received a Masters in Public Health in 2007 at the Harvard School of Public Health. 

Since 2005, she has served as Chief of the Center for Clinical Eye Research and Trials of the Beetham Eye Institute,Joslin Diabetes Center.  She is a Senior Investigator in the Vascular Cell Biology Section of the Joslin.

Dr. Sun is Chair for Diabetes Initiatives of the DRCR Retina Network (January, 2018 – anticipated through December, 2027), a National Institutes of Health-sponsored collaborative network of retina sites performing clinical research in diabetic eye disease and other retinal diseases. Previously, she served as the Network’s nationwide Protocol Working Investigator from 2010-2017 as well as a Network Vice Chair from 2012-2014, and Chair-Elect in 2017. Dr. Sun has been nationwide Protocol Chair of three DRCR.net studies (Protocols L (2009-2011), W (2015-2017) and AA (2013-2017)).

She is a Co-Scientific Directorfor the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative, which is cosponsored bythe Mary Tyler Moore and S. Robert Levine, MD Charitable Foundation, JDRF and the Caswell Diabetes Institute of the University of Michigan.

Dr. Sun serves as an Associate Editor for Diabetes and as the Clinical Challenges Editor for JAMA Ophthalmology. Her publications include 115 papers in the peer-reviewed literature with 47 additional reviews and chapters.

She received the 2008 ARVO/Alcon Early Career Clinician-Scientist Research Award, the 2016 RPB Physician-Scientist Award, the 2018 JDRF Mary Tyler Moore and S. Robert Levine, M.D., Excellence in Clinical Research Award, the 2021 Macula Society Young Investigator Award, and has delivered named lectures including the 2017 Wilmer Eye Institute Joseph Smiddy Lecture (Johns Hopkins), 2018 Morton Goldberg Lecture (University of Illinois at Chicago) and the 2022 UK Optic Lecture for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists.