Leonidas Zografos is honorary Professor at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne. His main research activities and clinical practice involve the diagnosis and conservative management of ocular tumours and the development of pioneering radiotherapy techniques. In 1984, he introduced proton beam irradiation to Western Europe for the treatment of intraocular tumours.

Professor Zografos has an international reputation in the field of ocular oncology, and is the Medical Director of the Jules-Gonin Eye Hospital and Scientific Director of the Institute for Research in Ophthalmology of Sion. He has received numerous honours and distinctions. In 2009, he was nominated Commander oft he Phoenix Legion of the Hellenic Republic, in 2003 received the Doctor Honoris causa degree of the University of Alger and in 2004 the Doctor Honoris causa degree oft he University of Athens.

He is a member of several ophthalmological scientific societies and has authored/co-authered over 160 original articles and 140 book chapters, reviews or letters. He was principal author and editor of the 2002 annual report of the French Ophtalmological Society on intraocular tumours.

Zografos was born on the 10th of September 1947 in Instanbul, Turkey. He is married and has one child. He graduated from the University of Athens (Medical School) in 1972, and specialized in Ophthalmology and Surgical Ophthalmology. He got his PhD in 1987 in the University of Lausanne, and in 1996 he became a professor in the same university.

“My father was also an ophthalmologist, and it certainly affected my decision in becoming one. It’s a matter of genes”, says Zografos at a past interview*. “After finishing school in Instanbul, I came to Athens and entered Athens Medical School. I have the best memories from those years. In fact, the first two years have been really creative for me, inside and outside the university. We could move freely at that time. Unfortunately, the next years came the dictatorship, and things got a lot worst. From those years I also remember a lot of my professors. I can honestly say that every academic year was marked by a professor who was really great at his field. From the first year, Professor Alexopoulos in Physics, from the second Professor Maltezos in Physiology, from the fourth Professor Skalkeas, and from the fifth Professor Malamos. In fact Malamos did a great work in showing us how one can create a clinic from scratch, equal to the clinics you could find abroad. All you needed was to be “present” in every problem, and of course the right management”, says Zografos.