4/83 – 5/89 Medical School, University of Heidelberg, Germany
9/1987 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, U.S.A.
Clinical Clerkship: Hematology/Bone marrow transplantation program
4/88 – 11/88 University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, U.S.A.
Subinternships in surgery and internal medicine
1986-1987 Medical thesis in physiology: ‘Renovascular effects of adenosine-agonists’ (‘magna cum laude’) – doctoral degree Dr.med.
1994 Board Examination Ophthalmology
10/1997 Habilitation (‘Privatdozent’) for Ophthalmology: ‘Age-dependent changes in Bruch’s membrane and the retinal pigment epithelium as pathogenetic factors in age-related macular degeneration’
Academic and professional appointments
Since 2003 Chairman and Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Bonn
1995 – 2003 „Oberarzt“ at the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Heidelberg, Germany; 2001-2003 „Geschäftsführender Oberarzt“
1992 – 1993 Research and Clinical Fellowship Medical Retina, Institute of Ophthalmology, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, England
Supervisor: Professor Alan C. Bird, MD, FRCS, FRCOphth
9/93 The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Boston, U.S.A., lipofuscin research project
1989-1991, 1994 Residency, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Scholarships and awards
1987-1989 Scholar of the German National Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes)
1988 Scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
1992-1993 Research Scholarship Gertrud-Kusen-Foundation, Hamburg, Germany
1999 Macular Degeneration Research Award for the Prevention of Blindness, Pro Retina Germany and Switzerland
1999 Research Award of the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG)
2000 Achievement Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO)
2001 Leonhard-Klein Award for Ophthalmic Surgery
2005 DOC Award, German Ophthalmic Surgeons
2008 Leonhard-Klein Award for Ophthalmic Surgery
2011 Senior Achievement Award AAO
2011 Alcon Research Institute Award
2014 Jules Gonin Award
2017 Medaille d’or Paul Chibret
Main scientific interests
• Pathogenesis and therapy of macular diseases including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), retinal vein occlusions and diabetic retinopathy
• Imaging of retinal and macular dieseases: confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, fundus autofluorescence imaging, optical coherence tomography, two-photon–excited fluorescence imaging
• Surgical therapy of retinal/macular diseases
Other functions• Founder and Coordinator to the German Research Council (DFG)-Priority Program „Age-related macular
degeneration“ (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SPP 1088)
• Board member of the German Ophthalmological Society, past president (2008)
• Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed, scientific journal „Der Ophthalmologe“ (Official Organ of the German Ophthalmological Society), Publisher: Springer
• Member of the Committee for Macular Diseases of the German Ophthalmological Society
• Editorial Board member: RETINA, Graefe’s Archive of Experimental and Clinical Ophthalmology; International Ophthalmology; Ophthlamologica
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the AMD Alliance International
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Pro Retina Society
• Board member and President-elect EURETINA
• Coordinator EU-IMI2 project MACUSTAR on intermediate AMD
Publications
• More than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals
• Editor of several books on Age-related macular degeneration and Medical Retina
• More than 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals
Author/coauthor of more than 20 book chapters
Society Memberships
• American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO)
• Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
• Macula Society
• Club Jules Gonin
• Oxford Ophthalmological Congress (OOC)
• European Fluorescein-Angiography Club (FAN-Club)
• Euretina
• German Ophthalmological Society (DOG)
• German Retinological Society