2012 Lifetime Achievement Award:
Dr. Jorge L. Alió

Jorge L. Alió, MD, PhD, is professor and chairman of Ophthalmology at the Miguel Hernández University, Alicante, Spain, and formerly chairman of Ophthalmology at the University of Alicante, Spain. He has been appointed with several visiting professorships at universities in the United States and Europe. He has medical and doctorate degrees with first-class honors from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.

Dr. Alió’s main research interests include refractive, lens and corneal surgery, ocular inflammation and preventative ophthalmology. He has (co-)authored over 640 original articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is author or editor of 74 books and over 230 book chapters. He has made over 1,700 national and international scientific presentations in ophthalmology congresses. His main contributions have been in the area of excimer laser refractive surgery, microincisional lens surgery, and multifocal accommodative and premium IOLs.

Dr Alió has received multiple awards and distinctions for clinical and research work, including the presidency of the International Society of Refractive Surgery (ISRS) from 2006-2008, LXIII chair of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, and the Barraquer Award (ISRS-AAO), among over 20 other international and national recognitions. He is also a member of 26 scientific societies and holds executive committee positions in numerous international ophthalmic organizations.

In 1996, Dr. Alió founded the Jorge Alió Foundation for the Prevention of Blindness, with humanitarian campaigns on a national and international level, currently operating in Mauritania. The Foundation created the Miradas (“glances”) art contest, with award-winning paintings featured on the cover page of the Journal of Refractive Surgery. The Foundation is also dedicated to education in medical and visual sciences.