Super Mover: Dr. Irak Dersu

Dr. Irak Dersu has been invested with the John W. Nutt Chair in Ophthalmology at UAMS.

Background: Dr. Irak Dersu earned a medical degree from the Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey, and a Master of Public Health degree from the Faye W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She joined UAMS in 2005.

Experience: After a four-year ophthalmology residency in Ankara, Dersu completed a glaucoma research fellowship under Dr. Robert Weinreb, a world-renowned glaucoma expert, at the University of California at San Diego. In her research Dersu used a prototype of a scanning laser to detect changes in the eye’s optic nerve. "The laser is now used in clinics worldwide," UAMS said. Dersu, a glaucoma specialist at UAMS’ Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, is an associate professor of ophthalmology and director of glaucoma services. She became board certified by the Arkansas Board of Ophthalmology in 2002.

New Position: Dersu received the John W. Nutt Chair in Ophthalmology at an investiture ceremony in late April. The chair was established with a gift from Nutt, his family and close friends to aid research, education and patient care in glaucoma, an eye condition from which Nutt suffered. "We’re extremely proud to have someone with Dr. Dersu’s expertise serving as a researcher, doctor and educator here at the Jones Eye Institute," said Dr. Christopher T. Westfall, director of the Eye Institute. "She is certainly a great fit for this honor and her work in all three of those categories is a great benefit to those we serve both now and into the future."