Established by wife, Penny and son, Ryan, the professorship is named for their husband and father, Michael Connolly, a non-smoker, who endured a 22-month battle with lung cancer before passing away at the age of 39.

Dr. Pignoni joined Upstate in 2009 as an Empire Scholar in the Department of Ophthalmology. She has played leadership roles in the research and academic efforts of the Ophthalmology department and the Center for Vision Research (CVR). She has served as interim chair of the department since December 2018.