Shady Awwad obtained his medical degree with the Alpha Omega Alpha award, completed an internship in general surgery, and a residency in ophthalmology (1999-2002) all at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). He then pursued a double fellowship in corneal diseases and surgery and refractive surgery (LASIK, PRK, Corrective lens implantation) (2002-2006) and a fellowship in ophthalmic pathology (2005-2006), all at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He is currently an associate professor, director of the laser refractive surgery center, and the head of the cornea and refractive surgery division at AUBMC. He is recipient of the American Academy of Ophthalmology achievement award.
Dr. Belin attended Northwestern University (Evanston, Il) where he majored in Bio-Medical Engineering and received his medical degree from Rutgers Medical School. He completed his internship and residency at the Albany Medical College and fellowship in Cornea and External Diseases at the University of Iowa. He subsequently completed (by invitation) a traveling fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeon of England Foundation. Dr. Belin is Professor of Ophthalmology & Vision Science at the University of Arizona Department of Ophthalmology and Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System (Tucson, Arizona). He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Albany Medical College (Albany, New York) and the University of Ottawa (Ottawa, Canada). Dr. Belin holds an honorary Professorship at the Military Hospital #1, Shenyang, China.
Dr. Belin is a Past-President of the Cornea Society (2006-8) and Vice-President for International Development (2008-15). He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Ophthalmology. He served on the Board of Directors, the Medical Advisory Board and the Executive Committee of the Eye Bank Association of America. Michael is Chair of the American University Professors of Ophthalmology’s Fellowship Compliance Committee (AUPO-FCC). Dr. Belin is a past recipient of the AAO Honor Award, Senior Honor Award, Academy Service Award, the Achievement Award (x2) and the AAO Life Time Achievement Award. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed articles and has presented over 300 papers at major national or international meetings.
Dr Efekan Coskunseven was born in 1968 in Nazilli, Turkey. He graduated from Medical School of Ege University and specialized in Ophthalmology in the Medical School of Dicle University. Dr Coskunseven is the Director of Refractive Surgery Department in Dunya Eye Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey since 2003.
Farhad Hafezi, MD PhD FARVO, is a professor of ophthalmology, anterior segment surgeon, and ocular cell biologist.
Farhad completed his medical studies at the University of Bern 1992 and then in 1993 transitioned to the University of Zurich. In 2011, Farhad conducted a fellowship in oculplastics and lids at the Rotterdam Eye Hospital and then co-founded the famous IROC AG (Zurich, Switzerland) in 2002.
From 2005-2008, Farhad completed his PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam on the management of complications of refractive surgery while maintaining his clinical position at IROC. In 2010, Farhad became chairman of ophthalmology at the University of Geneva and director of the Geneva University Hospital Eye Clinic. In 2014, Farhad founded the ELZA Institute AG (Zurich, Switzerland), where now works clinically.
Academically, Farhad remains a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Geneva, University of Southern California and Wenzhou Medical University in China. Farhad is the group leader of the Ocular Cell Biology Laboratory at the University of Zurich.
In 2014, 2016 and 2018, he has been voted by his peers onto the biennial PowerList100, a list of the 100 most influential people in ophthalmology.
Combing patient care, research & development, and teaching, Hafezi is a pioneer and key opinion leader of corneal cross-linking (CXL).
Farhad is dedicated to humanitarian work dedicated to helping children with keratoconus by serving as an active board member of the Light for Sight Foundation. Farhad also serves on a number of industrial advisory boards, including EMAGine AG (Zug, Switzerland) that is dedicated to bringing access to CXL technology to all.
Country:Switzerland
Co-Founder, Light for Sight Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland.
Nikki Hafezi-Kristoffersen is a management consultant in strategy, business development, intellectual property management, fundraising and quality management systems. She specializes in medical devices and hospital management with a focus in ophthalmology and vision science.
Mrs. Hafezi has built and managed a global-leading vision institute and research center in Zurich, launched a center for international clinical research for the largest eye hospital in Switzerland, and founded the largest charity dedicated to a specific eye disease and vision health initiatives.
In Uzbekistan, Mrs. Hafezi is responsible for the strategic development of the most modern eye hospital based in Tashkent. Additionally, she has built an international ophthalmic medical device company with a distribution channel in over 60 countries.
Mrs. Hafezi earned a master’s degree in intellectual property from the ETH Zurich and a specialization in clinical research (biostatistics) from the University of Bern, Switzerland.
J. Bradley Randleman, MD received his BA degree from Columbia University in New York City, his M.D. degree from Texas Tech University School of Medicine in Lubbock, Texas, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society in his junior year, followed by his Ophthalmology residency and Cornea and Refractive Surgery Fellowship at Emory University. Dr. Randleman is joining the USC Roski Eye Institute from the Emory Eye Center in Atlanta Georgia, where he was the John H. and Helen S. Hughes Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Cornea, External Disease, & Refractive Surgery Section.
A widely respected cornea specialist, his areas of expertise include: corneal and intraocular refractive surgical procedures including LASIK and premium laser-assisted cataract and IOL surgery, complicated cataract surgery, and the management of keratoconus and other corneal ectatic disorders. His primary research focuses on identification and management of corneal ectatic diseases including keratoconus and postoperative ectasia after LASIK, and the avoidance, diagnosis, and management of refractive surgical complications.
Senior Optometrist and Scleral Contact Lens Specialist, ELZA Institute, Zurich, Switzerland
Founder and CEO, Studio oculistico Dr Miguel Rechichi
Seiler graduated from gymnasium in 1968 and enrolled the same year at the University of Heidelberg where he studied mathematics and physics. He received his prediploma in physics in 1970 and eventually continued his studies at the Freie Universität of Berlin where he graduated in 1972 with a degree in physics. He also began with his medical studies in the same year.
In 1975 Seiler he commenced his doctorate studies in physics, resulting in the dissertation “Modulated dynamic nuclear polarization of the nuclei of smaller gyromagnetic ratios” at the Free University of Berlin and started his teaching profession for higher education (mathematics and physics) in the following year. At the same time he continued his medical studies and passed the medical state examination in 1981 and was granted a license to practice medicine in 1982.
He worked as medical assistant in 1981 at the Eye Clinic of the Free University of Berlin and was promoted to be lecturer in 1982. His doctorate followed in 1984 with a thesis on “Linearity of tonometry” for which he received his title as Dr. med. summa cum laude. In 1986 he became a specialist registrar in ophthalmology and also became senior physician at the University Eye Clinic of the Free University of Berlin, eventually also being appointed in 1989 as Deputy Head. He habilitated at the Free University of Berlin in 1987 with his scientific paper “Refractive corneal surgery” and was appointed as professor in ophthalmology in 1989.
On October 1, 1993 Seiler was appointed professor at the Department of Ophthalmology and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital of the University of Technology of Dresden. He kept this position until January 1, 2000 when he was appointed as Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Zürich.
In October 2002, he founded the Institute for Refractive and Ophthalmic Surgery (IROC) in Zurich. His work and research interests include corneal surgery, especially refractive corneal surgery, surgery of the anterior segment and physiological Optics.
Seiler is a member of the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG), the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), the Swiss Ophthalmological Society (SOG), the American Society of Refractive and Cataract Surgery (ASCRS), the European Cornea Society (EuCornea), the International Society of Refractive Surgery (ISRS) and served as boardmember for the DOG, ISRS and EuCornea.
In the 2015 annual conference of the All India Ophthalmological Society, Dr. Rohit won the prestigious Col. Rangachari award for the overall best paper of the conference for his work on “Is Inflammation Driving Keratoconus? – A Holistic Study Of Molecular Pathways”. The American Academy of Ophthalmology recently conferred an achievement award to Dr. Rohit Shetty for the distinguished services he has rendered over the years to the programs of the society.
Appointed by the Italian Consiglio Superiore di Sanità ( Board of the Ministry of Health) as an expert(2003). Paolo Vinciguerra is the coordinator of “Cornea and Refractive Surgery” Master of Italian Swiss University- Lugano (since 2012).
As a member of numerous Italian and international scientific societies, throughout his professional career Paolo Vinciguerra has been a member of many boards of directors of ophthalmologic societies .
Committee and member of Award SOI committee for the Italian Ophthalmology Society. He has been an Honorary Member of the Italian Ophthalmology Society (since 1995) and an Honorary Member of the Italian Society for Corneal Transplants (SITRAC) since 2004.
He has been a member of the International Council of the International Society of Refractive Surgery-American Academy (ISRS-AAO) since 2004.
Winner of many Italian and international awards (5 Italian Awards and 7 International awards), He received Special Recognition for his outstanding scientific contribution to Refractive Surgery from the International Society of Refractive Surgery-USA in 1988 and the Achievement Award Certificate in 2003 from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. In 2005, he received the “Lans Lecture” award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology -ISRS for his scientific contribution to ophthalmology since the beginning of his career and Waring Medal from Slack Incorporated (2011).
As a pioneer of refractive surgery working with scientific institutes and ophthalmology companies engaged in development and research into technological innovations (as Nidek International Co,LTD since 2002,Oculus since 2010, Schwind Germany since 2010), he has filed numerous patents in both Europe and the rest of the world . In particular, his research and publications have led to the development of the cross cylinder procedure for correcting astigmatism, study of the ablative profile in the transitional zone for excimer laser photoablation, a new system for correcting systemic photoablation errors by topographic and aberrometer measurement of an artificial test eye, development and computerised analysis system for corneal stroma in confocal microscopy using fractal calculation (5 International Patents). Other patent applications are currently pending.
Dr Riccardo Vinciguerra is currently working as an ophthalmologist and Scientific responsible at the Humanitas San Pio X Hospital, Milan, as well as a research collaborator at Biomechanical Engineering Group, University of Liverpool, UK. Despite his young age, he is a very well-known international researcher with various peer-reviewed publications mainly in the field of corneal biomechanics, refractive surgery, corneal collagen cross-linking and corneal transplants.
He has completed his medical school in the Università degli Studi di Milano in 2011. He then graduated from the Brescia-Insubria University as a Specialist in Ophthalmology and completed a Glaucoma Clinical fellowship and a Cornea Clinical Fellowship at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool, United Kingdom. He worked then as a Cornea Consultant at the Birmingham and Midland Eye Center, Birmingham, UK. The article “Detection of Keratoconus With a New Biomechanical index” published in the Journal of Refractive Surgery earned him the prestigious Troutman Prize in 2017.
Dr. Vinciguerra is the author of 70 original scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and received 5 prizes and awards. His work has been cited more than 1100 times with an h-index of 16.
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