José Cunha-Vaz

Member of the Jury

José Cunha-Vaz, M.D., Ph.D. was born in Coimbra, Portugal. He was an undergraduate and medical student at the University of Coimbra. He began his residency in Ophthalmology in Coimbra and later trained at the Moorfields Eye Hospital and at the Institute of Ophthalmology in London, England. He remained in England for over three years where he trained under the direction of Norman Ashton, David Maurice and Barrie Jones. After a two-year stint in the Portuguese Army in Angola, West Africa, he returned to the University of Coimbra where in 1972 he was made Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology. In 1979, Dr. Cunha-Vaz moved to the United States to become a full-time Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Retina Service at the University of Illinois Chicago until his return to his Chair in Coimbra two years later. In 1984, he became the Director of the Deicke Cell Eye Center and Retinal Vascular Service, as well as Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Chicago. When Portugal entered the European Union in 1986 and new perspectives opened for his country, Dr. Cunha-Vaz decided to return to Portugal and his Chair of Opthalmology at the University of Coimbra. Since his return to Potrtugal, he has created the Institute for Biomedical Research on Light and Image, a 56,000-square-foot multidisciplinary research institute next to Coimbra’s University Hospital and AIBILI, a not-for-profit technology transfer organization.

Dr. Cunha-Vaz’s work has included laboratory and clinical research in retina and intraocular fluids with special emphasis on blood-retinal barriers and diabetic retinopathy. He initiated clinical vitreous fluorometry and multimodal macular mapping. His work has contributed to our present understanding of retinal degenerations.

Dr. Cunha-Vaz served two terms as President of the Portuguese Ophthalmological Society and is a founder member of the European Union of University Professors of Ophthalmology (EUPO), the International Society for Ocular Fluorometry, the European Association for the Study of Diabetic Eye Complications and the European Society for Engineering and Medicine and the European Vision Institute (EVI). He is also the coordinator of the European Network of Clinical Trial Centers of Ophthalmology (EVI.CT.SE). He is a member of Academia Ophthalmological Internationalis (Chair XLIV), European Academy of Ophthalmology (Chair VII) of which is now the Secretary-General, past President of the European Society of Cataract Surgery and elected presently President of the European Society of Retina Specialists (Euretina). Professor Cunha-Vaz has many Awards such as the Diaz Caneja and Paul Henkind lectures, the Alcon Research Institute Award and the Helmholtz Gold Medal of the European Society of Ophthalmology. He has been distinguished by his country with the Orders of Merit in Public Instruction and Henry the Navigator. Professor Cunha-Vaz serves on the boards of many ophthalmic and diabetes journals, is the Chief Editor of Experientia Ophthalmologica, has published more than 44 books chapters and over 401 peer-reviewed journal articles.