Hendrik Scholl, Director of IOB’s Clinical Center, has been selected to receive the 2024 Kupfer Award of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). He is the first European recipient to be honored with the prestigious award. The selection of Hendrik Scholl is tributed to his outstanding contributions to the public and the vision research community with global impact. The award will be presented during the General Business Meeting at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, May 5 - 9, 2024, in Seattle, Washington.

Since 2016, Hendrik Scholl is department chair at the University of Basel and co-founded the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), which started operations in 2018. In addition to his research and medical work, he is active in public services with national, international and global impact, on behalf of eye and vision research.

While holding the Dr. Frieda Derdeyn Bambas Professorship of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA (2011 – 2016), he designed, implemented, and coordinated the ProgStar Study (Natural History of the Progression of Stargardt Disease; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01977846; progstar.org/), the first multi-center, international natural history study on Stargardt disease. To date, 17 study reports and many ancillary papers have been published. Furthermore, Hendrik Scholl supported the activities of the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR/AEVR) and was invited speaker at the Public Witness hearing of the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) Appropriations Subcommittee in the US Congress in 2012 and 2013. In recognition of his achievements for the community of researchers and patients affected by retinal dystrophies the Foundation Fighting Blindness awarded Hendrik Scholl with the Visionary Award 2013.

Hendrik Scholl published more than 230 peer-reviewed original and review articles and has been serving on a variety of editorial boards including the Advisory Committee of JAMA Ophthalmology. Since 2019, he is serving as the Editor-in-Chief of Ophthalmic Research. His specific expertise as a clinician scientist is reflected by his membership and/or chairmanship of data monitoring committees (DMCs) of important clinical trials.

Hendrik Scholl has been serving as the Chairman of the European Vision Clinical Research Network (EVICR.net) since 2017. EVICR.net is a network of European ophthalmological clinical research sites, dedicated to perform multinational clinical research in ophthalmology with the highest standards of quality, following the European and international directives for clinical research according to harmonized standard operating procedures in order to strengthen the capacity of the European Union to study the determinants of ophthalmic diseases and to develop and optimize the use of diagnostic, prevention and treatment strategies in ophthalmology. The network currently comprises 96 clinical ophthalmological centers from 16 European countries.

Since 2016, Hendrik Scholl is the president of the European Vision Institute (EVI). EVI, since 2022 a non-profit association based in Basel, Switzerland, serves as a European alliance for the promotion of science, innovation, research and teaching in the field of ophthalmology, vision research and diseases of the visual system as well as the development of therapies for such diseases. Among other activities, EVI was the organizing body of expert group meetings (Special Interest Focus Groups) and published the results on new technologies for outcome measures in retinal disease (Ophthalmic Res 2020), in glaucoma (Ophthalmic Res 2020), in corneal diseases and limbal stem cell deficiency (Ophthalmic Res 2021), and uveal melanoma (Ophthalmic Res 2022).

Hendrik Scholl founded ARVO-SWISS, the national chapter of ARVO in Switzerland and serves as its president. ARVO-SWISS was established in August 2020 as a sub-group of members of the Swiss Society of Ophthalmology and has since grown to 115 members. Executive members of all major academic centers in Switzerland serve as its leadership. ARVO-SWISS seeks to connect the Swiss community with other communities under the umbrella of ARVO as the leading brand of eye and vision research worldwide. It provides a voluntary association of researchers and clinicians dedicated to advancing the field of ophthalmic research in Switzerland that promotes activities and programs for the benefit of its members and the vision research and science profession. As part of its mission, ARVO-SWISS also aims at joint advocacy projects and partnering with patient organizations.

Kupfer Award - the award was first presented in 1993 to Dr. Carl Kupfer, who served as Director of the National Eye Institute, U.S. National Institutes of Health, for 30 years. The award honors those who have demonstrated distinguished public service with national or global impact, on behalf of eye and vision research. The prize giving ceremony takes place at the ARVO Annual Meeting.

ARVO, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, is the largest and most respected eye and vision research organization in the world with nearly 11,000 researchers from over 75 countries. ARVO advances research worldwide into understanding the visual system and preventing, treating and curing its disorders.