2018 Founders' Award: Dr. Renato Ambrósio, Jr.
Prof. Ambrósio is the first son of the past Renato Ambrósio M.D., who pioneered refractive surgery in Brazil in the early 1980s, and Vera Martins Ambrósio M.D., a resilient and dedicated ophthalmologist who upheld the family practice after the premature decease of her husband in January 1994. He belongs from a family with many ophthalmologists, including his younger brother, Rodrigo Martins Ambrósio M.D., a talented retina surgeon, and his beautiful wife Renata Siqueira da Silva M.D., a well-trained and competent glaucoma and contact lens specialist.
He concluded residency in Ophthalmology at the Instituto de Oftalmologia Tadeu Cvintal (São Paulo) in 1999, a fellowship program on Refractive Surgery and Cornea at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) in October 2002, and the PhD Doctorate in Sciences at the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo in May 2004.
In 2006, he was elected the President of the Brazilian Society of Administration in Ophthalmology, being in this position until July 2010. From 2012 until 2014, he was the last president of the Brazilian Society of Refractive Surgery before the incorporation with the Brazilian Society of Cataract and Implants for the creation of BRASCRS. He was also vice-president of the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology from 2013 until 2015 and has served the ISRS executive committee since 2014.
In 2007, he founded The Rio de Janeiro Corneal Tomography and Biomechanics Study Group, from which over one hundred publications were originated. He is an affiliate professor of the Post-Graduation in Ophthalmology at the Pontific Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (lato sensu) and the Federal University of São Paulo (stricto sensu). In 2017, he was approved in public examination as an adjunct professor in Ophthalmology at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro.
With more than 500 publications and more than 60 awards in Brazil and abroad, he was voted the 11th most influential ophthalmologist by the British journal, The Ophthalmologist in 2014, and again was included among the top 100 in 2016 and 2018.
Professor Ambrósio is a world-class refractive surgeon, who is considered a true clinician-scientist. His major areas of interest are corneal tomography, biomechanical imaging and wavefront, custom laser vision correction, refractive cataract surgery and therapeutic procedures for keratoconus. Besides his busy and proactive academic appointments, he is at private practice in Rio de Janeiro at Instituto de Olhos Renato Ambrósio and VisareRIO - Refracta Personal Laser.