Distinguished Alumni Award

After working for more than 30 years as an ophthalmologist, intraocular researcher, and medical educator, you might think the excitement of removing a patient’s bandages after cataract surgery would diminish.

That’s not the case for Nick Mamalis, MD.

“Dad operates on cataract patients on Mondays, and we talk on the phone almost every Tuesday afternoon after he’s seen them in the clinic,” said his daughter, Tina Mamalis, MD ’16, an ophthalmologist who did her residency at the University of Utah. “He is so excited about how his patients respond to being able to see clearly—it’s like he’s never done a cataract surgery before in his life. My dad is so happy and fulfilled in his career every day, and that passion is what inspired me to specialize in ophthalmology.”

Nick Mamalis is the 2020-’21 recipient of the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine Distinguished Alumni Award.

At the U, Mamalis is a professor of ophthalmology at the John A. Moran Eye Center, director of ophthalmic pathology, and co-director of the Intermountain Ocular Research Center. His professional accomplishments—captured in an 86-page curriculum vitae—span all aspects of academic medicine and have earned him many accolades, including the Life Achievement Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2015.

Mamalis’s story began in the wind-swept mining town of Rock Springs, Wyo., where his grandparents emigrated from Greece. He was just 4 years old when his dad died, leaving behind a wife and four children. An early interest in science led Mamalis to consider medicine as a career, and summers working in a coal ash mine strengthened his resolve to attend college. He applied to Harvard University and received a scholarship, arriving on campus sight unseen in the fall of 1974.

“At first, I was intimidated. I’d been a top student in high school, but at Harvard, I was only average,” Mamalis said. “Fortunately, I was smart enough to realize that I was at one of the greatest language-arts institutions in the world. So in addition to fulfilling my pre-med requirements, I took classes in government, history, and English, all taught by great professors.”

Mamalis attended the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine and met his future wife, Mercy, at church during his second year. “My uncle, who was visiting from Wyoming, and Mercy’s mom, who was a member at the church, had met years before at a basketball tournament,” Mamalis recalled. “They recognized each other during the coffee hour and introduced Mercy and me. She and I started dating right away and got married about a year later.”

An ophthalmology rotation during medical school set the course for his career. “When I saw my first cataract surgery, I remember thinking, these guys can restore people’s vision by simply removing a cloudy lens,” he said. “It was quite incredible.”

During his fourth year, Mamalis was introduced to his future mentor, David Apple, MD, an ophthalmic pathologist who was doing cutting-edge intraocular lens research. Apple offered Mamalis an ophthalmic pathology fellowship at the U, which Mamalis completed between his internal medicine internship and ophthalmology residency at Loyola University Medical Center near Chicago.

After his training, Mamalis returned to the U, thinking he would stay for five years and move on. “But it’s such a wonderful place that I never wanted to leave,” he said. “The ophthalmology faculty is fantastic, and our chair Randall Olson has always made sure we have the resources and people to do great things. Salt Lake City is a great place to live. I started mountain biking 25 years ago and enjoy doing various canyon rides.”

When Apple left the university in 1988, Mamalis took over his small lab. A year later, he established the Intraocular Mountain Research Center at the U with ophthalmologist Liliana Werner, MD, PhD. The two continue to co-direct the center, which focuses on evaluating the design, biocompatibility, and materials used in intraocular lenses. Scientists from all over the world come to the center to participate in research trials, many of which are sponsored by lens manufacturers. Between 80-90 percent of intraocular lenses that are evaluated in Food & Drug Administration trials go through the lab first.

“Right now, we are studying novel ‘accommodating lenses’ that mimic the way the human lens works—they can change shape to improve vision for distance and reading up-close,” Mamalis said. “We’re also evaluating a laser treatment that would allow us to refine the correction of an intraocular lens after it’s been placed in the eye.”

Early in his career, Mamalis helped launch the American Intraocular Implant Society, which later became the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS). He has served in many leadership roles for the society, including president (2019-’20). Mamalis was also president of the Utah Ophthalmology Society from 2005 –’06.

“He is so excited about how his patients respond to being able to see clearly—it’s like he’s never done a cataract surgery before in his life.”

In the late 1980s, the ASCRS asked Mamalis to investigate a rising number of post-operative infections and toxic reactions following cataract surgery. As part of his investigation, he coined a name for the condition, Toxic Anterior Segment Syndrome, and became known in some circles as “Mr. TASS.” Through funding from ASCRS and Fight for Sight, Mamalis established a center at the University of Utah that analyzes and prevents outbreaks of TASS worldwide. 

Now in his 34th year at the university, Mamalis continues to teach and mentor fellows, residents, and medical students.

“You can get into trouble quickly with eye surgery, and it isn’t unheard of for an attending to grab a resident’s hand and take over,” Tina Mamalis said. “But my dad has what we call his ‘HAL’ voice—from the HAL 9000 character in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. If a trainee gets into trouble during surgery, the HAL voice patiently directs them away from disaster. I hope to emulate that kind of calm under pressure when I teach residents and fellows.”

Nick Mamalis certainly enjoys his teaching and research responsibilities at the university, but he says caring for patients is his favorite part of the job. “Patients are so excited to see clearly again that they often cry and hug me,” he said. “I find it so energizing to see the impact of surgery on their vision. And I love that many of the intraocular lenses we use in surgery came through my lab during the development phase. It’s exciting to be part of the breakthroughs that advance the field of ophthalmology.”

• Leigh Wilkins

A shorter version of this article appears in the print edition of UtahMed.