Professor Botond Roska, Director at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB) and Professor at the University of Basel, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Science, has won the Sanford and Susan Greenberg Visionary Prize "for uniquely valuable research having the greatest impact toward advancing restoration of vision in human patients."
The prize value is USD 250'000 and is dedicated to research. It is part of the international END BLINDNESS BY 20/20 campaign which provides a total of two million dollars for research for individuals, groups or institutions that contribute most to ending blindness by 2020. The award ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C. on December 14th.
The Greenberg Prize aims to create a worldwide research community that will contribute its collective skills and resources to ending blindness.
I am very honored to have been selected by the Prize committee as a representative of what they regard as «the most major breakthrough in restoration of vision in human patients.I am proud that our molecular and clinical researchers at IOB are part of this community of purpose.
Here in Basel, we are making progress towards novel therapies for several blinding diseases. The Greenberg Prize will help us to accelerate this endeavor and to enlarge our worldwide collaboration with experts working towards the same goal."
Botond Roska, Professor and Director, Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel
Botond Roska is now looking forward to the award ceremony in December. "As well as the other awardees, I shall have the privilege of meeting the board members Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, as well as the musician Art Garfunkel and the other members of the Prize's governing council, and above all Sanford and Susan Greenberg, to whom I am extremely grateful."