Dr. Osama Ibrahim is president of Alexandria University, Egypt, and distinguished professor of ophthalmology. He is the 23rd president of Alexandria University and the first elected president (December 2011).
He completed his medical degree in the Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, in 1980 as the top student. He joined the Ophthalmology Department, completed his residency, and got his master’s degree in 1984. His experience in cornea and refractive surgery started in 1985 with a doctoral thesis on radial and astigmatic keratotomy.
Dr. Ibrahim completed a fellowship in corneal and refractive surgery at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, between 1988 and 1990 with Prof. George Waring. During that time he studied corneal topography and shared in the first classification of normal topography. He finished his doctorate in 1990 and joined the staff until he was promoted to full clinical professor in the Ophthalmology Department at Alexandria University in 2000.
Dr. Ibrahim was the chief of Corneal and Refractive Surgery in El-Maghraby Eye Hospital and Centers in Saudi Arabia from 1991 to 1996. He was a world leader in automated lamellar keratomileusis (ALK) in the early 1990s and innovative in excimer laser surgery with PRK and PTK. He was among the first group that developed LASIK in 1992 at El Maghraby centers.
Upon Dr. Ibrahim’s return to Egypt in 1996, with the great help of his eminent professors Dr. Sheta, Dr. Hussein and Dr. El-Sahn, he established the first private subspecialty group practice, “Alex Eye Center,” with great success. He also helped and promoted many ophthalmic centers, both in Alexandria and all over Egypt—the chain “Roayah,” of which he is the CEO, has expanded to include six centers in Egypt and two in the Arab world.
During his 30 years of clinical practice and research development, Dr. Ibrahim has supervised and discussed more than 70 master’s and doctoral theses both in Alexandria University and almost all other universities in Egypt. He is an active member of almost all prestigious ophthalmic societies in the world, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy), American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, International Society of Refractive Surgery, American College of Ophthalmic Surgeons, Middle East and Africa Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO), Egyptian Ophthalmic Society, and the Egyptian Society of Ocular Implants and Refractive Surgery, and he is a founding member of the African Society of Refractive Surgery. He is on the editorial board of Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and Middle East African Journal of Ophthalmology and has helped to edit and publish many papers in the field of cornea, cataract and refractive surgery. Prof. Osama is the recipient of the Academy’s 2012 MEACO Distinction Award and the 2012 Achievement Award.
