Jorge L. Alió, MD, PhD, is Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology and Medical Director of the Alicante Institute of Ophthalmology at the University of Miguel Hernández, Alicante, Spain. He is also founder of the VISSUM Corporation, comprising 40 clinics in Spain and founder of the Jorge Alió Foundation for the Prevention of Blindness. Dr. Alió has conducted extensive research work in various areas of ophthalmology and has been the Director of 63 doctoral theses. He has authored almost 450 original articles in indexed peer review journals as well as more than 240 book chapters. He is the author, editor or co-editor of 77 books and has given almost 1400 presentations at international scientific congresses. The Hirsch factor (h-factor) of Dr Alio is 43 (Scopus). He has received 75 awards for clinical and research work, 32 of them at an international level. He was co-founder of the International Ocular Inflammation Society and its Chairman until 1998 and then Secretary to the present day. He has served on the editorial boards of many journals, including the Journal of Refractive Surgery, Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, European Journal of Ophthalmology and British Journal of Ophthalmology. In November 2012, Dr. Alió received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the ISRS/AAO Congress in Chicago.Joseph Pikkel, MD, is Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at Sieff Hospital, Safed, Israel, a senior lecturer and the head of ophthalmology in the Bar-Ilan faculty of medicine. Since 2009 he has also been a lecturer at Technion – Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Haifa, Israel. It was from this faculty that he graduated in 1991, subsequently serving a residency in the Department of Ophthalmology at RAMBAM Medical Center, Haifa, Israel and a fellowship at Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia. In 1997 he returned to Israel, as a Consultant at the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, where he performedabout 2500 operations and as Medical Director at the “Roim 6/6” institute, where he performed some 5000 refractive surgeries. Dr. Pikkel’s research interests lie in diseases of the vitreous and retina, vitreoretinal surgery and glaucoma. He is a member of the Israeli Council of Ophthalmologists and of the Examination Comity of the Israeli Board of Ophthalmologists. In 2004 he was made an honorary citizen of the cities of Iakucho and Suyana in Peru, where he served as Head of the Israeli Save Sight Delegation, for contributions to citizens’ welfare while operating in local hospitals. He was also operating in save sight delegations in Angola, Congo, Ecuador and Guyana. Dr. Pikkel has authored more than 40 publications in national and international journals.
