Dr. Ming Wang, a Harvard and MIT graduate (MD, magna cum laude), is a world-renowned laser eye surgeon, philanthropist and Kiwanis Nashvillian of the Year. He is one of the few cataract and LASIK surgeons in the world today who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics. Dr. Wang has performed well over 55,000 procedures, including those on over 4,000 doctors, so he has been referred to as the “doctors’ doctor.”
Born on October 24, 1960, Ming grew up in Hangzhou, a city in southeastern China. At age fourteen, his education was suddenly cut short and he faced deportation and a life sentence of hard labor and poverty, a devastating fate that fell upon millions of youth in China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). To avoid deportation, Ming learned to play the Chinese violin—called the erhu—and to dance, with the hope of being accepted into one of the communist government’s song and dance troupes. Unsuccessful because the government discovered his plan, he then studied medicine illegally and composed songs expressing his longing for the chance to go back to school and have a future. With the death of the dictator in 1976, the disastrous Cultural Revolution ended and China reopened its colleges after ten years. Ming learned three years of the high-school curriculum in just a few months and gained a coveted admission spot in the University of Science and Technology of China. Ming eventually made his way to the U.S. in 1982, with only $50 and a Chinese-English dictionary in his pocket, but a big American dream in his heart.
Ming completed his PhD in laser spectroscopy and atomic collision dynamics in 1986 from the University of Maryland at College Park. In 1987, he enrolled in the joint Harvard Medical-school/MIT MD program and a postdoctoral fellowship. Together with Professor George Church, he developed a new way to study DNA-protein interaction in vivo and published a paper in the world-renowned journal Nature. Dr. Wang graduated in 1991, with his MD (magna cum laude) from Harvard and MIT and a first place award for his graduation thesis in biomedical sciences.
Dr. Wang completed his ophthalmology residency at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, followed by a corneal fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami. In 1997, he was named the founding director of the Vanderbilt Laser Sight Center, and became a full-time faculty member and director of the residency program in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. From 1997 to 2002, Dr. Wang also worked as a panel consultant for the U.S. FDA’s Ophthalmic Device Panel.
In 2002, Dr. Wang opened his private practice, Wang Vision Institute, which was later renamed Wang Vision 3D Cataract and LASIK Center. He performed the state’s first bladeless all-laser LASIK, laser cataract surgery and Kamra procedure, the U.S. first Intacs procedure for advanced keratoconus, and the world’s first laser-assisted artificial cornea implantation. Dr. Wang has published eight textbooks and over one hundred papers, and holds several U.S. patents for his inventions of new biotechnologies to restore sight, including the world’s first amniotic membrane contact lens. He is the recipient of the Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Chinese American Physicians.
Dr. Wang is currently the only surgeon in Tennessee who performs 3D LASIK (18+), 3D Laser Kamra and Raindrop (45+), 3D Forever Young Lens Surgery (50+) and 3D Laser Cataract Surgery (60+).He established two 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, the Wang Foundation for Christian Outreach to China and the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, which to date has helped patients from over forty states in the U.S. and over fifty five countries worldwide, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge.
Dr. Wang is the founding president of the Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the honorary president of Tennessee American-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the co-founder of the Tennessee Immigrant and Minority Business Group, and co-owner and international president of the Shanghai Aier Eye Hospitals in Shanghai, China, the largest private eye hospital group in China today, with over one hundred locations and a ten percent share of China’s eye care market. In 2005, Dr. Wang performed China’s first bladeless all-laser LASIK, the first in 1.4 billion people.
A champion amateur ballroom dancer, Dr. Wang is a former finalist in the world ballroom dance championships in the Pro/Am International Open 10-Dance. He still plays the erhu today, and was invited to accompany country-music legend, Dolly Parton, on her CD Those Were the Days. Dr. Wang also used the dance skills he learned during the Cultural Revolution as inspiration for his foundation’s annual sight restoration fundraising event—the EyeBall—which features classical ballroom dance. The EyeBall is now in its tenth year and has drawn attendees from all over the U.S. and around the world.
An internationally known philanthropist, a conservative activist, and a community leader, Dr. Wang regularly travels throughout the country and around the world to do work related to his two 501(c)(3) non-profit foundations. He is a sought-after public speaker for his two favorite topics, “Appreciating Freedom in America” and “Faith and Science: Friends or Foes?”
Dr. Wang was recognized for his charity contribution and community service with many awards including NPR’s Philanthropist of the Year Award, the Outstanding Nashvillian of the Year Award from Kiwanis Club and an honorary doctorate degree from Trevecca University.
Dr. Wang lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Anle Ji, and his parents, Dr. Zhen-sheng Wang and Dr. A-lian Xu.