Dr. Hou is an Associate Professor and the Lyon Chair of Ophthalmology in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences at the University of Minnesota. He earned his medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and completed his ophthalmology residency and cornea fellowship at the University of Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary in Chicago. He is an internationally recognized leader in ocular surface disease and limbal stem cell deficiency, as well as one of the highest volume surgeons in the nation for limbal allograft transplantation. He currently leads an NIH funded laboratory at the University of Minnesota that focuses on innovations in donor corneal tissue processing and tissue cellular therapies for treatment of ocular surface diseases. He is the primary inventor of Brightstar's patented technology. He is also the Medical Director for Lions Gift of Sight eye bank and serves as the Chair of the Scientific Programs Committee of the Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA).