Background
Medical School: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Residency: Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, DC
Additional Study:Fellowship in cornea and external ocular
diseases,University of Florida, Gainesville
Board Certification: Ophthalmology, 1971
Additional Information
Cowden has served as chairman and Roy E. Mason Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology
at MU since July 1, 1993.
He earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Michigan State University in
1960 and his medical degree in 1964 from the University of Michigan School of Medicine.
He completed a residency in ophthalmology at the Walter Reed General Hospital in
Washington, D.C., in 1969 and served in the military from 1965 to 1972. He was chief
of eye services at the 130th General Hospital in Nurnberg, West Germany, from 1969
to 1972. In 1973, he completed a fellowship in cornea and external ocular diseases
from the University of Florida.
Before coming to MU, Cowden was professor and vice chairman of the Department of
Ophthalmology at the Kresge Eye Institute at Wayne State University in Detroit.
He also served as president of the Michigan Ophthalmological Society and chairman
of the Legislative Affairs Committee. While at Wayne State, Cowden also served as
a member of the medical advisory board of the Eye Bank Association of America, as
chairman of the tissue committee for the Transplantation Society of Michigan and
as medical director of the Wayne State University Division of the Michigan Eye Bank
and Transplantation Center.
His research interests involve the long-term evaluation of refractive surgery. He
was co-principal investigator of the National Eye Institute's 10-year follow-up
study of the Prospective Evaluation of Radial Keratotomy (PERK) and a co-principal
investigator of the Canadian Health Department's study of excimer laser phototherapeutic
keratectomy. He is currently participating in the Laser Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis
study (LASIK).
Cowden is board certified in ophthalmology and a fellow of the American Academy
of Ophthalmology and the American College of Surgeons.
studies.
