Vision Excellence Awards: Serge Resnikoff

Professor Serge Resnikoff MD, PhD, is an international expert and consultant in global public health, ophthalmology, and eye health. He teaches in Paris and London. He is also the Chair of the International Myopia Institute board, the Chair of Our Children’s Vision advisory board and the President and Chair of Organisation pour la Prévention de la Cécité (OPC), an organization developing eye care in francophone Africa.

From 2008 to 2010 he served as CEO of Thea, a European pharmaceutical group, specializing in the research, development, and commercialization of eye care products. From 2004 to 2008, he co-ordinated various World Health Organization (WHO) programmes aiming to prevent and manage non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular, respiratory, genetic, ear and eye diseases.

From 1999 until 2004, he led the WHO Programme for the Prevention of Blindness and Deafness, which aimed to make essential eye and ear care available to all. Since joining WHO in 1995, he has developed public health strategies and contributed to global partnerships such as VISION 2020, involving governments, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and private sector groups. Before this, he worked for 14 years in developing countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

With a PhD from Paris University, an MD from Bordeaux University, and post-graduate degrees in ophthalmology, tropical medicine, air and space medicine, public health, epidemiology, and biostatistics, he has published over 200 refereed articles and book chapters.

He has won several international awards and received two honorary doctorates.

In the world of eye health, we all know that the one we affectionately call by his first name, Serge, has had or still has several “hats”. But we do not question whether it is the result of ambition or of a disproportionate ego. Useless, we all know it is not and that very often he devotes himself, despite his workload, to serve the cause that is so dear to him, that of the prevention of blindness. But who is Professor Serge Resnikoff?

Professor Serge Resnikoff is an international expert and consultant in global health, ophthalmology, and eye health. He teaches in Paris and London. His time at WHO since 1995 has seen him develop public health strategies and contribute to global partnerships such as VISION 2020, which involves governments, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and industry groups of the private sector. But it is from his 14 years of working as an ophthalmologist in sub-Saharan Africa that he has acquired the wisdom, patience, and the gift of listening to understand, analyze and decide. His years in N’Djaména in Chad, Atar in Mauritania or even in Bamako in Mali, are all memorable memories that he sometimes shares.