The Richest Monetary Prize in Vision

Abstract

T HOSE SEEKING BREAKTHROUGH DISCOVER- iesinophthalmologyandvision,likethose working to bring the benefits of such dis- coveries and modern ophthalmic care to poor people around the globe, are not do- ing it for the recognition or the money. Still, recogni- tion and monetary awards, particularly those that advance their work, do not hurt. The Antonio Cham- palimaud Vision Award, which is given annually, brings both recognition and funding to research and practice. At €1 million ($1.32 million at recent exchange rates), it is also among the richest prizes in all of medicine and,byfar,thelargestprizeforvisionresearchandblind- ness prevention. The Vision Award was established by the Champali- maud Foundation of Lisbon, Portugal, to recognize the Foundation'sfounder,AntonioChampalimaud,wholeft a significant portion of his fortune to be used for medi- cal advancement in the fields of neuroscience and on- cology. Because Antonio de Sommer Champalimaud, a Portugueseindustrialistandentrepreneur,sufferedfrom severe visual loss near the end of his life, the Founda- tion's President, Dr Leonor Beleza, and its Board of Di- rectors established the Vision Award in his honor. TheVisionAwardisgiven,onalternateyears,toapro- gram that has contributed significantly to blindness pre- vention among poor and underserved populations and, on the subsequent year, for significant research discov- eries. The formal award presentation occurs in Septem- ber at a grand affair in Lisbon presided over by the presi- dent of Portugal. The first, third, and fifth awards, respectively, went to the Aravind Eye Care System in India, for its having played a critical role in vastly expanding access to cata- ract and other ophthalmic services by pioneering high- quality, sustainable, and efficient delivery mechanisms; to Helen Keller International, a US-based nongovern- mental organization, for its leadershipin developing and promoting global programs for the control of blinding (and fatal) vitamin A deficiency in children; and to the African Program for Onchocerciasis Control, for devel- opingaunique,community-based,bottom-upsystemfor delivering annual doses of ivermectin that are protect- ing millions of people from river blindness in 17 coun- tries across sub-Saharan Africa. The second, fourth, and sixth awards went to leading vision researchers. In 2008, it recognized the contribu- tions of Jeremy Nathans and King-Wai Yau, for their dis- coveries related to the way light rays are detected by reti-