A ceremony in the southern city of Shiraz to honor renowned Iranian professor and ophthalmologist Ali Asghar Khodadoost for his invaluable services to humanity was held by UNESCO on Friday. Khodadoost is a veteran scientist in the field of ophthalmology.
Dr. Khodadoost is a scholarly physician and his success “is due to his beautiful vision as well as his love of people,” said head of the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO, Mohammadreza Saeedabadi, IRNA reported.
He has contributed immensely to production and growth of knowledge through his effective and influential presence in different universities and this why UNESCO is honoring the eminent Iranian personality, he said. Commemorating the exalted professor is propitious for UNESCO and transferring scientific knowledge to the new generation is possible through contributions of scientific personalities, and it is an honor to commemorate Dr. Khodadoost for his services, Saeedabadi said.
Biography
Prof. Ali Asghar Khodadoost was born in 1935 in Shiraz. In 1954, he began his academic studies in Shiraz University’s Faculty of Medial Sciences and was a top student. After completion of his six-year studies with distinction, the professor began as an intern in the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Department of Shiraz University’s Namazi Hosplital and worked till 1962.
Thereafter he left for the US to complete his specialized studies in the famous Johns Hopkins University. He was admitted as the first and only foreign assistant in the Ophthalmology Section of Johns Hopkins University in 1963 and throughout the next three years of his service, he earned praise as the best assistant of the Wilmer Ophthalmology Center.
In 1968 he returned to Iran and began teaching in the Faculty of Ophthalmology at Shiraz University as a full-fledged professor. From 1968 to 1980 he divided his time between Shiraz and Johns Hopkins where in addition to teaching he also pursed his scientific projects. The eye membrane section of the Johns Hopkins University is named after him and is called the Khodadoost Basement Membrane Line.
Contributions
During the same period he also taught as guest professor in various foreign universities, including in China, Turkey, Syria, Oman, Peru, Ecuador, and Italy.
In 1982 he was appointed as a full professor in the Faculty of Ophthalmology of Italy’s Sicily University and in 1992 he established the Connecticut Ophthalmology Center in Newington where he continued as the senior supervisor.
From 1980, he frequently visited Iran and the US, participating in hospital treatment of patients and academic training of young ophthalmologists in universities in both the countries, especially in Tehran and Shiraz.
His global fame, in addition to the publication of several scientific articles and broad scale research works in various fields, is due to the new remedial methods that he has initiated in eye operations. A large number of his articles are published in the website Pop Medicine and other international scientific periodicals.
