Dimitri Azar is an American ophthalmologist, professor, inventor and current CEO of Lacristat, a San Jose based ophthalmology bio-tech company. Dr. Azar previously founded Twenty Twenty Therapeutics, a joint venture established by Santen and Verily. The Twenty Twenty products were ultimately transferred to Santen and Verily in September 2024. Azar served as a board member of Novartis and a member of the scientific advisory board of Verily, Alphabet's Life sciences research organization. He served as dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) from 2011 to 2018, and is currently Distinguished Professor and Executive Dean Emeritus.
Education Azar received his medical degree from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Azar practiced at the Wilmer Eye Institute at the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Medicine, and completed his fellowship and residency training at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School, where he was a tenured professor of ophthalmology (2003–2006) and senior scientist at the Schepens Eye Research Institute.
Azar also holds an honorary master's degree from Harvard, as well as an Executive Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Academic positions After serving as tenured professor at Harvard Medical School, Azar joined UIC as a professor of ophthalmology, bioengineering and pharmacology, where he also served as head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and B.A. Field Endowed Chair of Ophthalmologic Research. He has published more than 500 scientific articles, chapters and patents with over 20,000 citations. He is a member of the American Ophthalmological Society, former president of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society, president-elect of the Chicago Medical Society, and former Trustee of the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).
Commercial roles Azar is the CEO of Lacristat, a San Jose headquartered ophthalmology biotech company and serves as Senior Advisor at Verily. Until recently, he was the founder and chief executive officer of Twenty Twenty Therapeutics, a joint venture between Verily Life Sciences and Santen.
He was a non-executive member of Novartis' Board of Directors from 2012 until 2019. He was also a member of the Audit and Compliance Committee and the Research & Development Committee.
Azar was a senior director of ophthalmological innovation at Verily, where ophthalmological projects include the development of smart contact lenses, including lenses designed to assist those with presbyopia and an intraocular lens. He was on the board of Verb Surgical Inc. and sits on the board of the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society in the US. He also sits on the board of Jellisee and the Cure Blindness Project (aka, Himalayan Cataract Project).
Published books
Azar DT, Steinert R., Stark WJ, editors. Excimer Laser Therapy: Phototherapeutic Keratectomy Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins; 1997 Azar DT. Refractive Surgery. Stamford, CT: Appleton & Lange-Simon and Schuster; 1997 Difficult and Complicated Cases in Refractive Surgery, Jorge L. Alió and Dimitri T. Azar, Springer, 2015 Pharmacologic Therapy of Ocular Disease (Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology), Scott M. Whitcup and Dimitri T. Azar, Springer 2017 Albert DM, Jakobiec FA; (Azar DT, and Gragoudas ES associate editors to FAJ). Principles and Practice of Ophthalmology Second Edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders; 1999. Jakobiec FA, Azar DT, editors. Pediatric Ophthalmology; International Ophthalmology Clinics; Winter 1992. Azar DT, editor. (Stark WJ, Azar NF, Pineda R, Yoo SH, associate editors). Intraocular Lenses in Cataract and Refractive Surgery. Philadelphia PA; Saunders; May 2001. Melki SA, Azar DT, editors. 101 Pearls in Refractive, Cataract, and Corneal Surgery. Thorofare, NJ: Slack; June 2001. Azar DT, Koch DD, editors. LASIK: Fundamentals, Surgical Techniques, and Complications. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; November 2002. Tsubota K, Boxer-Wachler B, Azar DT, Koch DD, editors. Hyperopia and Presbyopia. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 2003. Foster CS, Azar DT, Dohlman CH, editors. Smolin and Thoft's The Cornea: Scientific Foundations and Clinical Practice, 4th Edition. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2005. Azar DT, Camellin M, Yee R, editors. LASEK, PRK, and Excimer Laser Stromal Surface Ablation. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 2005. Melki SA, Azar DT, editors. 101 Pearls in Refractive, Cataract, and Corneal Surgery, 2nd Edition. Thorofare, NJ: Slack; 2006. Azar DT, editor. (Gatinel D, Hoang-Xuan T, associate editors). Refractive Surgery, 2nd Edition. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier-Mosby, 2007. Albert DM, Miller JW, editors, Azar DT, Blodi BA, associate editors. Albert and Jakobiec's Principles and Practice in Ophthalmology, 3rd Edition. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier, 2008. Alio JL, Azar DT editors. Management of Complications in Refractive Surgery. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2008. Azar DT, editor; BCSC 3. Clinical Optics, American Academy of Ophthalmology. San Francisco, CA; 2012. Alio JL, Azar DT, Abbouda A, Asward E, editors. Difficult and Complicated Cases in Refractive Surgery. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015 Azar DT, Rosen E. Yanoff and Duke's Cataract and Refractive Surgery e-book e-book searchable. Whitcup S, Azar DT, editors. Pharmacologic Therapy of Ocular Disease. Springer Heidelberg, 2017 Alio JL, Azar DT editors. Management of Complications in Refractive Surgery. Second Edition. Springer-verlap Berlin Heidelberg, 2018 Azar DT, editor. Refractive Surgery, 3rd Edition. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier-Mosby, 2019. Azar DT, Alio JL, Hallak J, Cortina SM, editors. Surgical management of Astigmatism, Jaypee Publishing, 2020 Albert DM, Miller JW, Azar DT, Young LH, editors, Blodi BA, associate editors. Albert and Jakobiec's Principles and Practice in Ophthalmology, 4th Edition. Philadelphia, PA: by Springer Verlag. 2022
Awards and recognition Azar is an internationally recognized ophthalmic surgeon and prolific researcher. He has been named one of The Best Doctors in America and one of the Castle Connolly Top Doctors in America annually since 1994. He holds multiple committee positions with the American Academy of Ophthalmology, is a member of the American Ophthalmological Association and sits on the board of trustees of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society and the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He has received multiple leadership awards, including the 2009 Lans Distinguished Award from the International Society of Refractive Surgery, and the University of Illinois at Chicago Scholar Award. Azar was awarded the Life Achievement award by the American Academy of Ophthalmology for his sustained services to the organization. The International Society of Refractive Surgery, in 2013, awarded him with the Jose Barraquer Award and has also received the University of Illinois at Chicago Scholar Award, and the Distinguished Professor award in 2013. In 2016, Weill Cornell Medical College awarded Azar with the John McLean Medal.
From 2008 to 2010, Chicago Magazine, in cooperation with Castle Connelly Medical Ltd., listed Azar as one of the top doctors in ophthalmology. In 2016, he received the Castroviejo Award in recognition of exceptional contributions in support of the Society's mission from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, as well as the Ramon Castroviejo Award from the Cornea Society. On June 27, 2019, he received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Balamand, in recognition of his significant lifetime achievements as a world-renowned scholar, creative inventor, academician, and eye surgeon.
Other notable awards
+Other notable awards and honors are as follows: YearAwardAwarded by1991Teacher of the Year AwardMassachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary1993Teacher of the Year AwardThe Wilmer Institute, Johns Hopkins University1996Resident Teaching Recognition AwardThe Wilmer Institute Johns Hopkins University1994-1996Top DoctorBaltimore Magazine, Baltimore, MD1996Voted among Top 10 U.S. Refractive SurgeonsOphthalmology Times1998American Academy of Ophthalmology Honor AwardAmerican Academy of Ophthalmology1999, 2001Top Doctor, Ophthalmology/ Refractive SurgeryBoston Magazine (Castle Connolly regional database)2003Top Doctor, OphthalmologyBoston Magazine (Castle Connolly regional database)2004Senior Achievement AwardAmerican Academy of Ophthalmology2005Top 50 Opinion LeadersCataract & Refractive Surgery Today2005Top 10 Ophthalmologists in Greater Boston areaBoston Herald Supplement2007Alcon Research Institute AwardAlcon Research Institute2005-2010Best Doctor in America®www.bestdoctors.com2006-2016America's Top DoctorCastle Connolly national database2008Maurice F. Rabb, MD/Jose F. Pulido, MD Medical Student AwardUniversity of Illinois at Chicago2009University Scholar AwardUniversity of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL2010Silver Fellow, Outstanding service to the eye and vision communityhttps://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/923275Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology2011Beta Gamma Sigma Honor SocietyUniversity of Chicago Booth School of Business2013Jose Barraquer Awardhttps://chicago.medicine.uic.edu/dean-honored-with-the-jose-barraquer-lecture-and-award/International Society of Refractive Surgery, American Academy of Ophthalmology2014Gold Fellow, Outstanding service to the eye and vision communityhttps://www.arvo.org/awards-grants-and-fellowships/arvo-fellows/2014-arvo-fellows/Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology2016Ramon Castroviejo Award https://corneasociety.org/castroviejo-award Cornea Society2016John McLean Medal https://events.weill.cornell.edu/event/ophthalmology_alumni_meeting_2016_focus_on_corneaWeill Cornell Medical College2016Distinguished Service AwardAssociation of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology2018Distinguished Research Achievement Awardee 2018HMS Department of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting and Alumni Reunion2019SAFIR Lecturer, “Intelligence artificielle en ophthalmology.”SFO, May 11, 20192019Guest of HonorNew England Ophthalmological Society, September 6, 20192023Dastgheib Pioneer Award in Ocular Innovationhttps://wcnvi.com/about/dastgheib-pioneer-award-in-ocular-innovation/Duke University, October 12, 2023
External links
Novartis profile UIC statement
References