Academic

Professor Jorge L. Alió is Professor and Chairman first in Alicante University and then in Miguel Hernandez University. He has had a longstanding academic career, starting in 1980 until now on a continuous basis. Professor Alió started his academic career very early, becoming Honorary Associate Professor of Ophthalmology while he was in his term of residency in the Fundacion Jimenez Diaz, in the Autonoma University of Madrid. Following this, he was clinical research fellow of the Spanish Ministry of Health, with the rank of Associate Professor of Ophthalmology (1980-1983). From this position he became Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Salamanca (1982- 1983), followed by Full Professorship achieved in the same university (1983-1986), and then Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology in the University of Alicante since its initial years (1986-1997). In parallel to this he has developed research activities in each of the universities in which he has been located, establishing important relations and cooperation with the industry bringing funds and resources to the universities with which he has created most of his scientific work. He has received important grants from the Spanish Ministry of Health, the most important being the CENIT, in which he was the principal investigator with a grant of 11 million euros which was successfully accomplished in the years (2 009-2012) and more recently a grant from the European Union’ s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme for the development of an artificial intelligence project, entitled “Virtual eye model system for personalised refractive surgery treatment” (VEMoS), as coordinator for the project.

He is active member of over 20 scientific societies and has presented a total of 2800 presentations, lectures and courses. He is Honorary and Visiting Professor of 5 international universities. This outstanding contribution has been definitely coming from his vocation and dedication to ophthalmology and continuous medical education for his peer colleagues.

Related to his relevant scientific contribution , Professor Jorge L. Alió has one of the highest impact factors in ophthalmology in Europe (70 Scopus). This, together with the high number of his publications (710), books published (99) has made him relevant to become elected member of the Academia Ophthalmologica lnternationalis and European Academy of Ophthalmology, American Ophthalmological Society, among other relevant academic international positions. He has been Honorary Professor at Louisiana State University, USA mentored by Herbert Kaufman as well as receiving Hono rary or Visiti ng Professorships at the Universities of Seville, Spain (1986), La Habana, Cuba (1998), Massachusetts Eye and Ear Institute (2000) and Mansoura University, Egypt (2015) and Wenzhou Medical University, China (2015).

Among the many academic activities conducted by Prof Jorge Alió I have to highlight his contribution to continuous medical education in Ophthalmology in his country, developing the first CME program in the specialty in 1999, the creation of the most relevant on-line university specialization course in Refractive, Cataract and Cornea surgery, already in its 8th edition with over 500 teaching hours in multimedia format on these topics, which is contributing immense ly to the formal education of junior doctors in such areas.