Dr. Ronald N. Gaster received his B.A. from Cornell University. He received his medical degree from UCLA School of Medicine and then completed his ophthalmology residency at The University of Chicago. He did his surgical internship at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Gaster completed a fellowship in corneal and refractive microsurgery with Dr. Richard C. Troutman at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital and the Downstate Medical Center. He also worked with Jose I. Barraquer, MD, the father of Refractive Surgery, at the Instituto Barraquer de America in Colombia. He helped teach the first course in Refractive Surgery given in the northern hemisphere in 1979 with Dr. Troutman in New York.
Dr. Gaster has served as chief of ophthalmology at the Long Beach V.A. Medical Center since 1979. He was recruited to the Univeristy of California, Irvine, where he was acting chair of the department of Ophthalmology from 1987 to 1990 and still serves as professor of ophthalmology today. He was the first academic corneal specialist in Orange County and has trained numerous residents and fellows while maintaining his full-time academic position at UCI. He was elected President of the Orange County Society of Ophthalmology from 2002 to 2004.
Gaster’s primary clinical and research interests are in corneal and refractive surgery, including LASIK, and small incision cataract surgery and accommodating intraocular lenses. He is currently working on the use of the femtosecond laser with corneal transplant surgery and corneal cross-linking for keratoconus and post-LASIK ectasia.