New Faculty

Andrew Williams, MD

Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Glaucoma Service

Dr. Andrew Williams is a fellowship-trained ophthalmologist specializing in the medical and surgical treatment of glaucoma and cataracts. He performs both traditional glaucoma surgery, such as trabeculectomy and glaucoma tube shunts, as well as cutting-edge minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS). He has a strong research interest in improving healthcare delivery in ophthalmology by focusing on patient education, patient preferences, and system-based changes to broaden delivery of eye care. His work in these areas has been published in journals that include Survey of Ophthalmology, Preventive Medicine, and JAMA Ophthalmology.

Can Kocasarac, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Neuro-Ophthalmology Service

Dr. Kocasarac is a fellowship-trained ophthalmologist specializing in neuro-ophthalmology. He also completed an ophthalmology residency at the Bevoglu Education and Research Hospital in Istanbul Turkey as well as a neurology residency at the Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Kocasarac has a strong interest in research methodologies and data and information collection.

Michael Sigal, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology

Dr. Michael Sigal received his medical degree from Temple University. He then completed an ophthalmology residency at the State University of NY at Buffalo and a pediatric ophthalmology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is board certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology. He has memberships in the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus, the Pittsburgh Ophthalmology Society, the PA Medical Society and the PA Academy of Ophthalmology.

New Faculty (continued)

Scott Portnoy, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology

Dr. Scott Portnoy is a skilled cataract, cornea and external disease specialist with more than 30 years of experience. He graduated with honors from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at the Louisiana State University, Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, LA and his fellowship in Corneal and External Disease at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Abreast of the latest developments within ophthalmology, Dr. Portnoy is board certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology. He is active within the ophthalmology community including memberships in the Pittsburgh Ophthalmological Society, Allegheny County Medical Society and Pennsylvania Academy of Ophthalmology. He is also involved in the education of residents, fellows, and medical students in his work as Assistant Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In addition to providing a full array of ophthalmology services, Dr. Portnoy has a special interest in refractive cataract surgery using the latest laser technology.

James P Herman, PhD

Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology Laboratory of Visual Cognition

Dr. Herman received his PhD from the City College of New York, the City University of New York, Department of Biology. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Herman’s lab employs carefully controlled psychophysical tasks, large-scale extracellular electrophysiology, neuronal perturbation, and computational modelling techniques to explain the relationship between both intact and perturbed neuronal activity to ongoing behavior. He is particularly interested in leveraging learning-driven structured variation in behavior to understand how groups of neurons guide specific cognitive functions. Dr. Herman’s work is funded through a cortical vision grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

Progress continues on the new Vision Institute at the UPMC Mercy Pavilion. Construction is expected to conclude in late 2022/early 2023.