Richard L. Abbott, MD, Elected President of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis (AOI)

The Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis announced the election of Professor Richard L. Abbott, MD as its new President for the term beginning October 1, 2022 and ending September 30, 2026.

The Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis (AOI) was founded in Europe in 1975 and is a university-centered international organization committed to excellence in education, research, and culturally appropriate medical services to preserve and restore vision for people of the world.

Active membership of the Academia is limited to 100 worldwide university professors who meet the stringent academic criteria of membership. New members are nominated each year and elected by the AOI General Assembly.

About Richard L. Abbott, MD

Richard L. Abbott, M.D. was born in New York and grew up on Long Island. After completing his Bachelor of Science degree at Tufts University (A’67) in Boston, Dr. Abbott earned his medical degree at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, DC. He completed his residency at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and was a Heed and Fight for Sight cornea and external disease fellow at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami.

Dr. Abbott returned to San Francisco and served on the faculty at California Pacific Medical Center from 1978-1995, where he was Co-Director and then Director of the Cornea Service. In 1995 he was recruited to join the faculty at the University of California San Francisco as Director of the cornea and refractive surgery service. He currently is the Thomas W. Boyden and Kathleen L. Rydar Professor Emeritus at UCSF and Research Associate at the Francis I. Proctor Foundation.

Dr. Abbott currently serves as the President of Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis, a university-centered international organization committed to excellence in education, research, and culturally appropriate medical services to preserve and restore vision for people of the world. He is Past President of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the Past President of both the Pan American Association of Ophthalmology and the Pan American Ophthalmological Foundation. Dr Abbott is past Chairman of the Board of the Ophthalmic Mutual Insurance Company (OMIC) and a former Director of the American Board of Ophthalmology. He is a past Board Director for the International Council of Ophthalmology and served as Chairman of the Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee. Dr. Abbott has received numerous honors, including the U.S. President’s 25 year Volunteer Service Award; The International Blindness Prevention Award from the AAO, The Sir Stuart Duke Elder International Gold Medal (awarded to one ophthalmologist in the world every 4 years by the Royal College of Ophthalmology in the UK), the International Gold Medal from the Chinese Association of Ophthalmology; the Jose Rizal Medal for International Service to the Asia Pacific region from the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology; the AE Maumenee Pan American Medal for Distinguished Service to Latin America from the Pan American Association of Ophthalmology; the Asia Pacific Cornea Foundation Medal from the Asia Pacific Cornea Society; the Mark Tso Golden Apple International Teaching Award from the International Council of Ophthalmology; the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Lifetime Achievement Award; and the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who publications. He has authored or co-authored 91 publications and 33 book chapters and has delivered over 850 invited lectures and 36 named lectures.