Carmen Puliafito

About Carmen Puliafito

Carmen Puliafito

Professor of Ophthalmology and Health Management, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California; Chief of Strategic Development, Ophthotech

Carmen Puliafito is a co-inventor of one of the truly revolutionary technologies in ophthalmology: OCT, and was one of the 2012 Champalimaud Vision Award recipients for this great achievement. Further, he was the first to describe the use of semiconductor diode lasers for retinal photocoagulation, and the first surgeon to perform digital indocyanine green angiography. He’s also an excimer laser pioneer, having been involved in some of the basic science research behind photoablation, optical breakdown and photodisruption. Puliafito also laid some of the ground work for LASIK, publishing one of the first peer-reviewed papers on ablation of the cornea. With two US patents and six published books, he continues to work to advance OCT technology. As a sports fan, he has completed the Boston Marathon; indeed, he has a sporting sense of humor: in 1999, after some bad calls against the Red Sox (baseball) team during the World Series, he offered free laser vision correction to any American League umpire who might need it.