Dr. Azar began his career at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon, and completed his fellowship and residency training at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School in the US. His research on matrix metalloproteinases in corneal wound healing and angiogenesis has been funded by the US National Institutes of Health since 1993. Dr. Azar practiced at the Wilmer Eye Institute at the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Medicine in the US, and then returned to the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary as director of cornea and external disease. He became professor of ophthalmology with tenure at Harvard Medical School in 2003. Dr. Azar holds a master’s degree from Harvard and an Executive Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in the US.
Dimitri Azar, M.D., has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2012. He qualifies as an independent Non-Executive Director and is a member of the Research & Development Committee and the Governance, Nomination and Corporate Responsibilities Committee.
Dr. Azar is senior director of ophthalmological innovation at Verily Life Sciences. He has also served as dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Medicine in the United States since 2011, and as professor of ophthalmology, bioengineering and pharmacology at UIC since 2006. From 2006 to 2011, he was head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at UIC. He is a member of the American Ophthalmological Society, former president of the Chicago Ophthalmological Society, and president-elect of the Chicago Medical Society. Additionally, he is on the board of the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society, the board of Verb Surgical Inc., and the scientific board of Verily – all based in the US.
He has been named one of The Best Doctors in America or recognized among Castle Connolly’s Regional Top Doctors in America annually since 1994. Dr. Azar has received multiple leadership awards, including the 2009 Lans Distinguished Award and the University of Illinois at Chicago Scholar Award.
He is the author of more than 400 scientific articles and book chapters. He is the editor of 14 books in ophthalmology and holds 15 patents.