Richard H. Masland (1942–2019)

Dick’s first position at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in 1971 placed him under Adelbert Ames III, inventor of “Ames’ medium,” now used by everyone who studies the retina in vitro. Following up with ingenious anatomical studies, he targeted starburst cells with a selective nuclear stain and injected them with fluorescent dye to demonstrate their distinctive dendritic stratifications that, separated by a few micrometers, collect excitatory inputs from, respectively, ON or OFF bipolar neurons (Tauchi and Masland, 1984). [...]perhaps sensing that his original questions about the retina were substantially answered, Dick tilted toward problems with clinical implications and accepted the position as Director of the Howe Laboratory and Associate Chief for Ophthalmology Research at Mass Eye and Ear.