2015 Presidential Recognition Award:
Dr. Jorge L. Alió

Prof. Dr. Jorge Alió has been professor and chairman of ophthalmology since 1987, first at the University of Alicante and since 2002 at the University Miguel Hernandez de Elche, Alicante, Spain. Prof Alió’s main research interests include lens, refractive, and corneal surgery; ocular inflammation; and preventative ophthalmology. He is the founder of Vissum Corporation, which consists of a network of clinics throughout Spain, and the Jorge Alió Foundation for the Prevention of Blindness. He is the creator of the concept of microincisional cataract surgery (MICS) and has been a pioneer in the area of multifocal, accommodative, and toric IOLs and excimer laser refractive surgery and phakic IOLs, with over 40,000 surgeries performed during his professional life. He has been the author or coauthor of over 475 peer-reviewed papers published in prestigious international scientific journals, 285 book chapters, 85 books (as editor or coeditor), over 340 collaborations in ophthalmic scientific journals, and over 2115 presentations and invited lectures in international meetings. Dr. Alió’s Hirsch factor (h-factor), which indicates the influence of his work on the publications of other researchers, is 50 (Scopus), and Dr. Alio is listed with a field rating of 19 among top authors worldwide in ophthalmology during the last 5 years by the Microsoft Academic Search. At present, he holds the LXIII chair of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis and the XLIX chair of the European Academy of Ophthalmology and has received a total of 93 international and national awards. He is also creator and director of the first online course in refractive surgery from the Miguel Hernandez University, entitled “Scientific Methodology in Refractive, Cataract, and Cornea Surgery.”