Ronald N. Gaster, MD, FACS

Professor

Specialty:  Cataract, External Disease/Corneal Surgery & Refractive Surgery

Dr. Ronald N. Gaster is a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California, Irvine and was Acting Chair of the Department from 1987 to 1990. 

He has been honored by his peers by being selected for Woodward and White's "Best Doctors in America" every year since 1996, and was awarded the American Academy of Ophthalmology Honor Award in 1988 and the Senior Achievement Award in 2007.

Dr. Gaster's primary clinical and research interests are in corneal and refractive surgery, including LASIK, and small incision cataract surgery and accommodating intraocular lenses.  He is currently working on the use of the femtosecond laser with corneal transplant surgery.

In 1979, Dr. Gaster was recruited to UCI directly after completing his Fellowship in Corneal and Refractive Microsurgery at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital where he had been awarded a Heed Foundation Fellowship.  During his fellowship he worked with Jose I. Barraquer, M.D., the father of Refractive Surgery, at the Instituto Barraquer de America in Colombia.  He helped teach the first course in Refractive Surgery given in the northern hemisphere in 1979 with Richard C. Troutman, M.D., and was a charter member of the International Society of Refractive Keratoplasty.  Dr. Gaster was the first academic corneal specialist in Orange County and has trained numerous residents and fellows here while maintaining his full-time academic position at UCI.

Dr. Gaster completed his ophthalmology residency at The University of Chicago, his surgical internship at the University of California, San Diego, was awarded his M.D. from U.C.L.A. School of Medicine and received his B.A. from Cornell University. Dr. Gaster was elected President of the Orange County Society of Ophthalmology from 2002 to 2004.  He travels nationally and internationally to give lectures and teach ophthalmic microsurgery.  Dr. Gaster has been on several medical missions to third-world countries and has taught many ophthalmologists there advances in corneal and cataract microsurgery.

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