The world’s first LASIK laser eye surgery was performed 30 years ago this month. On March 25, 1988 Marguerite McDonald, MD at Louisiana State University Eye Center performed flapless LASIK (PRK) on a blind eye of Alberta Cassady, a 62 year old volunteer who had cancer in the eye and was willing to let her eye undergo the surgery for the furtherment of science. The response of her eye to PRK was so good that the FDA immediately approved further human clinical trials and, eventually, granted FDA approval of the PRK laser vision correction in 1995 (the first human LASIK procedure with a flap was performed in 1991 by Stephen Slade, MD and Stephen Brindt, MD) . Since that time, over 28 million cases of LASIK and PRK have been performed worldwide and the technology has advanced to levels almost unimaginable at the time FDA approval first occurred. Dr. McDonald and her colleagues insisted that LSU name its eye center after the brave woman who allowed this first LASIK laser vision correction to be performed on her eye. I have met and corresponded with Dr. McDonald on many occasions over the years and she truly is a brilliant and amazing physician and teacher — a pioneer that we all owe a enormous debt to.