John Berdahl

About John Berdahl

Your three wishes?

Truth would dominate agenda, longer summers in South Dakota, travel to space.

Piece of advice to your younger self?

Extend the same kindness to your closest family and friends as you do toward strangers. 

The most serendipitous moment of your career?

The most powerful moment was when I transplanted my father-in-law’s cornea. He will live on forever in that gift. That, and the TED talk my dad and I gave. 

The most unexpected turn your career took?

While scuba diving, I couldn't understand how the eye could withstand such pressure. I came to believe that it’s not intraocular pressure alone that matters, but IOP relative to intracranial pressure in glaucoma and IIH. It has been career-defining for me.