Iranian-American inventor of LASIK receives National Medal of Technology and Innovation
Few people know that LASIK, the now-popular vision-correcton surgery technique using laser, was invented and patented by an Iranian-American scientist, Dr. Gholam A. Peyman, who received this year's National Medal of Technology and Innovation from the White House (Source link).
Dr. Peyman was born in Shiraz,Iran. At the age of 19, he moved to Germany to begin his medical studies. He received his MD at the University of Freiburg in 1962. He completed his internship at St. Johannes Hospital in Diusberg, Germany in 1964 and at Passaic General Hospital in Passaic, New Jersey in 1965. Peyman completed his residency in ophthalmology and a retina fellowship at the University of Essen, Essen Germany, in 1969 and an additional postdoctoral fellowship in retina at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles in 1971.
In June 1989, after 12 years of research on the topic, Dr. Peyman's patent application for a method of modifying corneal refractive errors using laser, was granted. Dr. Peyman's patent was the first to describe what has become one of the most popular and effective elective surgical procedures in history: Laser-Assisted In situ Keratomileusis, more commonly known as LASIK surgery.
Gholam Peyman has, thus far, been granted 136 US Patents covering a broad range of novel medical devices, intra-ocular drug delivery, surgical techniques, as well as new methods of diagnosis and treatment. In 2005 he was selected by a ballot among the more than 30,000 ophthalmologists around the world to become one of the thirteen living ophthalmologists inducted into the Hall of Fame of Ophthalmology. He has received numerous awards including a 2010 Iranian Ophthalmology gold medal, and 2012 National Medal of Technology and Innovation from the White House.
The National Medal of Technology and Innovation is administered for the White House by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Patent and Trademark Office. The award recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness and quality of life and helped strengthen the Nation’s technological workforce. Nominees are selected by a distinguished independent committee representing the private and public sectors.
Peyman is currently Professor of Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Arizona, Phoenix.
See a profile of other distinguished Iranians in our IRANIANS section (link).
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