Dr. Dimitri T. Azar, MD, MBA, is a globally recognized academic leader, clinician-scientist, and innovator in ophthalmology. Dr. Azar has made pioneering contributions to corneal wound healing, refractive surgery, and biomedical innovation. He is actively involved in ophthalmic education and clinical care, with a busy anterior segment surgical practice.
He has served on the Board of Cure Blindness since 2018. He has served on multiple national academic committees in Medicine and Ophthalmology, on the Novartis Board, and as Senior Director at Google/Verily. As Executive Dean Emeritus at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and former Professor at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor Johns Hopkins University, his career bridges academia, administration, translational research, and industry. He is President and CEO of Lacristat.AI and was previously President and CEO of 20/20 Therapeutics. In 2017, he joined Alphabet Verily Life Sciences as Senior Director of Ophthalmic Innovations (including diagnostic, therapeutic, drug delivery and surgical innovations).
He is Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology, and served as Dean of the University of Illinois College of Medicine from 2011 to 2018. Previously he was Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Services at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School. He has been regularly named one of The Best Doctors in America and one of the Castle Connolly Top Doctors in America since 1994.
Dr. Azar has held multiple committee positions with the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and was board member and Vice President of the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He has served as a member of the American Ophthalmological Association and was on the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society and the Chicago Medical Society. He is an internationally recognized prolific researcher and ophthalmic surgeon. He has secured sustained NIH funding for over two decades and is an inventor on more than 100 patents, underscoring his impact on advancing ocular science and technology worldwide. With an H-index of 77 and over 22,000 citations, he has published over 520 papers and chapters and 23 textbooks in Ophthalmology. His work on Matrix Metalloproteinases in wound healing and angiogenesis was continuously funded by the NIH R01 award starting in 1993. Dr. Azar has delivered multiple named lectures and keynote addresses at national and international conferences. He has received multiple leadership awards, including the Lans Distinguished Award from the International Society of Refractive Surgery and the Barraquer and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
He holds a medical degree from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and an Honorary MA from Harvard University and an Executive MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.
