 While there, the doctor was appointed First Assistant to one of the forerunners of modern ophthalmology, Johann Friedrich Horner, of Zürich, Switzerland.Gifford moved to Omaha, NE, in 1886, where he became the city's first practicing ophthalmic surgeon.From 1895-1898 he was a professor of ophthalmology and dean of the Omaha Medical College, later known as the University of Nebraska Medical Center(UNMC).