Biography
After a successful career in the US as an academic Ophthalmologist, Dr. Gullapalli N Rao established the L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in Hyderabad, India in 1987 and is the Founder Chair. LVPEI is a complex of modern eye hospital with advanced training programmes for ophthalmologists and allied eye health personnel, an eye research centre, rehabilitation programme, product development, technology innovation and high-quality eye care models for underserved areas.
After his postgraduate residency training at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, he trained at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and later at the School of Medicine, University of Rochester, in the US, where he continued on the faculty until 1986.
Among his academic and research achievements are over 300 publications in peer reviewed international journals, membership on editorial boards of several international journals of ophthalmology, visiting professor to many Universities in the U.S, Europe, Australia and Asia, and honorary doctorates and fellowships from national and international universities and academics institutions. He is a member of the “Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis (AOI)”, group of 80 of the most eminent academicians in ophthalmology in the world and served as its President.
He held leadership positions on the Boards of many national and international eye care organisations, including the Board of Trustees of International Council of Ophthalmology. He played a pivotal role as Chair and CEO of International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) in developing and fostering the global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness along with WHO – VISION 2020: The Right to Sight.
He received several prestigious awards and honours from premier institutions and ophthalmological societies from around the world; and was honoured by the governments of India and Africa. He is among the 57 ophthalmologists from around the word to be inducted into “Ophthalmology Hall of Fame” at the meeting of American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) in Los Angeles. The All India Ophthalmological Society created the “Gullapalli N. Rao – AIOS Endowment Lecture” (one of the first five of all times, honoured in 2020). He received the The Sanford and Susan Greenberg Outstanding Achievement Prize through “End Blindness 2020” initiative.