Dr. Yifan Lu graduated summa cum laude from the University of Washington with her BS in Biochemistry. As an undergraduate, she studied drug resistance in P. falciparum strains in Asia and won the Distinguished Research in Chemistry Award. She went on to earn her MD from Harvard Medical School (HMS). As a medical student, Dr. Lu conducted research in the field of retinal imaging, specifically on optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), under the mentorship of John B. Miller, MD, in the Mass. Eye and Ear Retina Service. Her work has been published in journals such as American Journal of Ophthalmology, British Journal of Ophthalmology, Translational Vision Science and Technology, Ophthalmology, Plos One, and Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. She has presented her work at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology annual meeting and the International Swept Source OCT & Angiography Conference. 

In addition to her scientific endeavors, Dr. Lu has a longstanding commitment to education reform in ophthalmology. As a first-year medical student, she worked closely with Ankoor S. Shah, MD, PhD, Director of Ophthalmic Medical Student Education at HMS, to introduce the first ophthalmology course in the reformed Pathways curriculum. She has also worked with Alice C. Lorch, MD, MPH, Director of Harvard Ophthalmology Residency Program, and Grayson W. Armstrong, MD, MPH, Director of Ophthalmic Education in Core Medicine at HMS, on the impact of same-day access clinic vs. emergency department in the education of ophthalmology trainees. This work was published in JAMA Ophthalmology. She has also been recognized with several awards, including the Jeng Liu, MD, Endowed Scholarship; SF (MNT) Fund Scholarship; Lyman Scholarship; Robert N. Chang Foundation Scholarship; Varanasi Diversity Award; and Berkelhamer Book Award.