Gerd Auffarth
The Power List 2020 – Power List
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Heidelberg; and Director of the International Vision Correction Research Centre, David J Apple International Laboratory for Ocular Pathology, Germany
Your three wishes?
Good health
Happy family life
Less stress at work
What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
Do everything as I did!
The most serendipitous moment of your career?
The moment when I had to look up the word “serendipitous” to answer this question.
The second moment was when in my final year as a medical student, I got the opportunity to work at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambarene, Gabun, Central Africa, out of the blue. Since I was 12, it had been my dream to go there, and I could do that already in my early 20s. Working in the Hospital in Tropical Medicine and Pediatrics in the Lepra Village was an unforgettable experience.
The most unexpected turn your career took?
Similar to the previous point, another unexpected turn was when I was asked to go to North Korea twice to perform charity eye surgery, visit the country and see a lot of patients. I never thought I would ever travel to that isolated country.
