The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) Foundation has announced Aravind Haripriya, MD, and Rengaraj Venkatesh, MD, as the recipients of the 2026 ASCRS Foundation Chang-Crandall Humanitarian Award.

Endowed through a gift from philanthropists David and Victoria Chang, the award celebrates individuals who demonstrate exceptional dedication to humanitarian efforts aimed at reducing cataract blindness and vision-related disability. Each honoree will receive a $100,000 donation to the charitable ophthalmic organization of their choice and will be formally recognized during the ASCRS Annual Meeting, to be held April 10-13 in Washington, D.C.

“Dr. Haripriya and Dr. Venkatesh are ophthalmologists well known to ASCRS, who have contributed significantly to the overall advancement of excellence in our field as cataract surgeons,” said Lisa Park, MD, chair of the ASCRS Foundation Nominating Committee.

Dr. Park highlighted Dr. Haripriya’s global impact through her surgical expertise and landmark research. Over the past decade, Dr. Haripriya has led and published large-scale analyses summarizing outcomes from millions of phacoemulsification and manual cataract surgeries performed at the Aravind Eye Care System, providing definitive evidence on the role of intracameral moxifloxacin in reducing postoperative endophthalmitis.

She also emphasized Dr. Venkatesh’s leadership in sustainability and innovation. “Dr. Venkatesh has shown it is possible to minimize surgical waste in the operating room and revolutionized thinking about carbon emissions and sustainable healthcare delivery,” Dr. Park said, noting that his work helped inspire ASCRS’ EyeSustain initiative.

Beyond their individual accomplishments, the award recognizes the honorees’ shared leadership within the Aravind Eye Care System, a pioneering network of hospitals in southern India founded in 1976 by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy. Aravind’s high-efficiency, high-quality care model enables more than 50% of cataract surgeries to be provided at no cost or at significantly subsidized rates for patients in need.

“They have each performed nearly 100,000 cataract surgeries, many of them charitable cases,” Dr. Park said. “Their work exemplifies what is possible when excellence, efficiency, and compassion are combined.”

Both physicians are also deeply committed to education and global capacity-building. Through Aravind, they have shared best practices, operational systems, software tools, and training programs with hospitals worldwide, helping teams adapt the Aravind model to local needs. For more than two decades, Drs. Haripriya and Venkatesh have been regular faculty at the ASCRS Annual Meeting and other international conferences, teaching new techniques, updates in cataract surgery, and advancing manual small-incision cataract surgery (MSICS).