Anselm Kampik

Anselm Kampik — German ophthalmologist, scientist and university lecturer. Since 1995 he has been published annually in the ranking of the best ophthalmologists in Germany (FOCUS TOP 3) His scientific specialty is vitreous and retinal diseases. From 1987 to 1993, he was Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Eye Clinic at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. From October 1993 to the end of 2015, he was Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Eye Clinic at the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. Prof. Kampik directs the ophthalmology clinic in Munich.

After graduating from the Johann Siler High School in Dillingen in 1968, Anselm Kampik began studying medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. In 1974, he received his doctorate on the diagnosis and treatment of retinal detachment. This was followed by training as an ophthalmology specialist at the Eye Clinic of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München under the direction of Otto-Erich Lund. From 1979 to 1980, he received a fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. His research interests were in histopathology and electron microscopy in retinal and vitreous diseases. At the same time, he was involved in ocular microsurgery, where he also worked on other topics such as the treatment and diagnosis of glaucoma and corneal diseases. His thesis defense took place in 1981 on «Epiretinal and vitreous membranes. Electron-microscopic study».

In 1985, he was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology at the Eye Clinic of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and in 1987 he was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. In this capacity he served until 1993. In addition to retinology, the main areas of research at that time included the topics of microsurgical procedures for diseases of the vitreous and retina as well as the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy. Both at the Julius-Maximilians University and later at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, national and international multicenter studies were conducted with his collaboration.

In October 1993, he was awarded the title of Professor of Ophthalmology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. Since then, the ophthalmology clinic has developed an international reputation, especially in the treatment of vitreous and retinal diseases, and has become one of the largest ophthalmology clinics in Europe, treating 50,000 patients and performing around 9,000 operations annually.

In addition to his clinical and scientific work, Kampik was Vice President from 1995 to 1996, President from 1996 to 1997, and then Secretary General of the «German Ophthalmological Society» (DOG) from 1999 to 2014. He was a member of the board of the Retinological Society as vice president from 1992 to 2001. He was also co-founder of the German Academy of Ophthalmology (AAD). He was president of the Academy of Ophthalmology of Europe from 2011 to 2014.

In addition, a close collaboration was established and developed with the University Eye Hospital of Nairobi in Kenya. From 1994 to 1995, he was Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the retinal implant project.

Kampik is the author and publisher of several textbooks and monographs. He is also on the editorial board of several national and international journals. He is an expert on many topics in ophthalmology. He has written about 560 articles which have been cited about 16,000 times.

In October 2015, he founded the conservative and surgical ophthalmology clinic in Munich with other colleagues.

Main directions of clinical and scientific activities:

• retinal pathology, especially retinal detachment
• microsurgery in cataract treatment
• macular disorders, especially age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular disease
• vitreoretinal interface disorders (e.g., epiretinal gliosis and vitreomacular traction syndrome)
• pharmacological vitreolysis with microplasmin
• diabetic retinopathy
• ocular histopathology
• multimodal visualization of the eye
• Anterior and posterior eye microsurgery