EuCornea Medal Lecture

Friday September 21 2018 – 14.10

“Neural basis of eye surface sensations. From dryness to pain.”
Carlos Belmonte SPAIN

Carlos Belmonte is Emeritus Professor of Human Physiology at the Medical School, University Miguel Hernandez, and Senior Researcher of the Instituto de Neurociencias in Alicante (Spain). Prof. Belmonte is a member of the Academia Europaea, the National Academy of Sciences of Spain and The Akademie der Wissenschaft und Literatur, Mainz (Germany). He is Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universities of Castilla la Mancha, Spain and of Cordoba, Argentina, and Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Utah, USA. He has been Director of the Department of Physiology and Vice-dean at the Medical School, University of Valladolid, and served as Vice-President for Academic Affairs and as Dean of the Medical School at the University of Alicante since its foundation. In 1987 he created and directed until 2007, the Institute of Neurosciences, a Joint Center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University Miguel Hernandez (UMH), the largest neuroscience research centre in Spain.

Professor Belmonte has been Visiting Professor at the Universities of Harvard and Utah, and Visiting Scientist of the Eye Research Institute of the Retina Foundation (USA) and of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute of New South Wales University in Australia. He has been President of the International Brain Research Organization; the International Society for Eye Research; and the Spanish Societies of Neurosciences and Medical Education.

In Spain he has been awarded with the National Research Award “Rey Jaime I”, the National Prize for Biology and Biomedicine “Severo Ochoa” and the National Award in Medicine “Gregorio Marañón” , all presented by the Kings of Spain. Prof. Belmonte has been awarded internationally with the Endre Balazs Prize of the International Society for Eye Research; the European Vision Award of the European Vision Institute; Alcon Award; the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Foundation; the Leloir Award of the Government of Argentina and the Lifelong Mentorship Award 2017 of Nature journals.

Prof. Belmonte has been a member of the boards of many international research institutions (Human Frontiers, European Research Council Grants, Hellen Keller Foundation, DANA Alliance for the Brain, ERA-NET Neuron) and belongs to the international scientific board of several Research Institutes and Foundations in Spain, Mexico, Germany, France, UK, Japan and USA. The research work of Prof. Belmonte and his co-workers has been centred in the study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying peripheral somatosensory transduction and pain, and in the neural mechanisms of ocular sensations.