David Williams
MA, Med, VetMD, PhD, Dipl. ECAWBM CertVOphthal, CertWEL, FHEA, FRCVS
Instructor
Before he graduated from Cambridge Veterinary School in 1988, David already knew that he wanted to concentrate on ophthalmology in his professional career. Seeing practice in Solihull, West Midlands, John Heath CertVOphthal MRCVS senior partner in the 608 Veterinary Group captivated David with his enthusiasm for the subject. Before graduating David gained experience with Dr Keith Barnett at the Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, an internationally recognised expert in the field. After qualifying David worked as assistant veterinary surgeon and then resident in veterinary ophthalmology at the Trust, before gaining his certificate in veterinary ophthalmology and moving to the Royal Veterinary College to undertake a PhD investigating the pathology of chronic superficial keratitis in the German Shepherd dog. After gaining his PhD David stayed at the RVC, as resident in clinical pharmacology with a particular interest, perhaps not surprisingly, in ocular pharmacology. After two years researching the practical and theoretical aspects of ocular drug delivery, he moved back to the Animal Health Trust for a period as Clinical Investigative Ophthalmologist before completing the circle, as it were, and moving back to Cambridge. There he completed a doctorate in veterinary medicine working on the pathogenesis of age related cataracts across species and also gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for studies on ocular disease in farmed halibut, given the interest he has in eyes of exotic species and wildlife. Here he is now Associate Lecturer in Veterinary Ophthalmology in the Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, a position he combines with teaching at St John’s College, where he is fellow, Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine and College Lecturer in Pathology. David’s other passion is animal welfare and he is a diplomate of the European College of Animal Welfare and Behaviour Medicine.
Gert ter Haar is from the Netherlands and studied veterinary medicine at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht, where he graduated in February 1997. After an internship and surgical residency in Utrecht, he became a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2002 and Head of the Department of ENT at the University of Utrecht in February 2003. His research on hearing in dogs led to his PhD thesis, a 220-page book entitled “Age-related hearing loss in dogs” in 2009. On the same day he became President of the International Veterinary Ear Nose and Throat association (IVENTA). He joined the surgical team of the Royal Veterinary College in London, United Kingdom, in 2011 as a senior lecturer in soft tissue surgery and got promoted to associate professor in soft tissue surgery and head of the ENT department and ENT, Audiology and Brachycephaly clinics at the RVC in 2015. In March 2017 he joined the team of the SDU (specialistische dierenkliniek Utrecht), the largest European specialist referral centre in the Netherlands. He is author and co-editor of three surgical books and has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles in his field of interest. He gave over 300 national and international lectures on ENT medicine & surgery, hearing research in dogs and soft tissue/reconstructive surgery in dogs and cats. His current research involves hearing loss in dogs and cats and brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome.
Chris Seymour
MA, VetMB, DVA, Dipl. ECVAA, PGCert(MedEd), FHEA, MRCVS
Instructor
Chris graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1982 and received specialist training at the University of Liverpool. He has had a very long and varied career, both in general practice and in referral hospitals. Chris has edited three editions of the BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Anaesthesia and Analgesia, and served on the examination committee of the ECVAA for 5 years. He has a keen interest in anaesthetic safety, perioperative fluid therapy and all aspects of pain management, as well as encouraging others from many countries to achieve their full potential in a supportive learning environment. He is currently working as a freelance anaesthetist at a number of refferal hospitals in England.
Education: Rick was born in Spain but followed his education in the US and the UK with a BSciBiol in 1994 (STAC, New York), a DVM in 1999 after attending Ross and Louisiana State Universities, a Certificate in Ophthalmology issued by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) in 2004, DipECVO status in 2007, a veterinary teaching degree (FHEA) through the RVC in 2014, and RCVS Recognized Specialist status in 2016.
Work: After obtaining his college and university degrees, Rick commenced his veterinary specialty training in the US in 1999. After obtaining a European veterinary qualification in Barcelona in 2002, he undertook a residency training in ophthalmology at the University of Glasgow and the Eye Veterinary Clinic in the UK, which he completed in 2005. Then, he developed a private ophthalmology practice in Kent until late 2011, when he joined the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) of the University of London to re-establish and direct the Ophthalmology Service and an ECVO Ophthalmology Residency program. He returned to private practice in 2017, settling in Utrecht, The Netherlands (Specialistische Dierenkliniek Utrecht - SDU). Rick lectures around the world. He is an Editorial Board Member of the Veterinary Ophthalmology journal since 2010. He is the Ophthalmology Section Editor of BMC Veterinary Research since 2018. He has contributed the ‘Cornea’ chapter (ch12) to the BSAVA Manual in Ophthalmology and the ‘Eyelid Reconstruction’ chapter (ch6) to the Reconstructive Surgery and Wound Management of the Dog and Cat’, and in 2020 hopes to launch a new textbook entitled ‘An Altas of Small Animal Ocular Surgery’. He has active research interest in the cornea, corneal surgery, cataract surgery and glaucoma (follow the link below to view his current research publication list).
Dr. Antonella Rampazzo works at the University of Zürich as Chief Clinician in the Ophthalmology Service. She is involved in the clinical and surgical management of the high caseload of small animal and equine patients. Moreover, she is responsible for teaching students, interns and training ECVO Residents. After graduating at the Torino University of Veterinary Medicine in 2000, she has dedicated her career to both clinical and research field in Veterinary Ophthalmology. In 2004 she finished her PhD Thesis about Feline Infectious Conjunctivitis and in 2009 she became a Diplomate of the ECVO. Dr. Rampazzo has worked as Director of the Ophthalmology Service at the University of Bern, Switzerland and as Ophthalmologist in a multireferral Private Practice in Italy, Istituto Veterinario di Novara, for many years. Dr. Rampazzo is actively involved in supporting ECVO mission, being part of the Education and Residency Committee.
Ron Ofri
DVM, PhD, Dipl. ECVO
Instructor
Ron Ofri was a member of the charter class of the Koret School of Veterinary Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Upon his graduation he traveled to the University of Florida, where he spent the next 4 years undergoing clinical training in veterinary ophthalmology and obtaining his Ph.D. During this time Ron developed an interest in the physiology of vision, focusing on retinal electrophysiology and animal models of retinal diseases. Upon his graduation Ron returned to Israel andjoined the faculty of his alma mater, where he is currently a Professor in Veterinary Ophthalmology and winner of numerous Teacher of the Year awards. At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ron expanded his research interests to include to includeclinical veterinary ophthalmology (focusing on glauocoma and retinal diseases) and retinal gene therpay. His groundbreaking work on retinal gene therapy on a herd of sheep with naturally occuring day blindness has resulted in restoration of vision intreated animals for >6 years, and has paved the way to FDA approval of Phase I/IIa clinical trials in humans patients. Ron is also a very popular international speaker, having been invited to talk in more than 40 countries and 6 continents, lecturing incontinuing education seminars, national & international meetings, and world congresses for general practitioners including BSAVA, SEVC, WSAVA, WVC and NAVC/VMX. He also lectures frequently in advanced training courses for veterinaryophthalmologists, including lectureship at the Basic Science Course of the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists (where he has been speaking since 2002) and numerous other forums. Ron has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, is a contributing author to the Gelatt's classic textbook Veterinary Ophthalmology (3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th editions) as well as co-author of the popular textbook Slatter's Fundamentals of Veterinary Ophthalmology (4th, 5th and 6th editions, below). Ron is aDiplomate of the European College of Veterinary Ophthalmology (ECVO), a former ECVO Executive Board member and Scientific Committee member and in 2002-2005 he served as President of the European Society of Veterinary Ophthalmology.
Robert Lowe
BVSc, DVOphthal, MRCVS, RCVS Specialist in Veterinary Ophthalmology
Instructor
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Chiara Leo
DVM, MSc, FHEA, Dipl. ACVIM (Oncology), Dipl. ECVIM-CA (Oncology)
Instructor
Mi sono laureata a pieni voti all’Università degli Studi di Milano nel 2003 in medicina veterinaria. Ho completato un internship di Oncologia all’università di Zurigo nel 2007 e successivamente un residency di Oncologia all’Animal Oncology and Imaging Center a Zug (Svizzera) con periodi di formazione presso la Washington State University, al termine del quale, dopo aver superato gli esami richiesti dal College Americano di Oncologia veterinaria, ho ottenuto il diploma ACVIM (Oncology). Dal 2011 al 2015 ho ricoperto la posizione di lecturer in Oncologia al Royal Veterinary College di Londra (UK) e nel 2015 ne sono diventata Head of Service. Nello stesso anno ho ottenuto il titolo FHEA (Fellow in Higher Education).
Nel gennaio 2016 ho lasciato l’Inghilterra per tornare in Italia e diventare responsabile del servizio di oncologia dell’Istituto Veterinario di Novara. Dal 2023 sono responsabile dei programmi di residency del gruppo AniCura Europa e svolgo ancora attività di consulenza oncologica per l’Inghilterra.
Sono fondatrice e faccio parte del comitato scientifico Unisvet. Ho ottenuto il diploma ECVIM-CA (Oncology) de facto nel 2021. Sono segretario di ESVONC (European Society Veterinary Oncology) dal 2022.
Dedico il mio tempo libero alle passeggiate in montagna con la mia famiglia ed i miei cani Arturo e Mowgli
Dr Leiva was born and raised in Barcelona, Spain, where she received her Veterinary Degree from the University Autonomous of Barcelona (UAB). She completed a small animal rotating internship, followed by a European Residency in Comparative Veterinary Ophthalmology) at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the UAB. In October 2005, she was awarded the European Diploma in Veterinary Ophthalmology (ECVO dipl) and joined the Ophthalmology Service of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the UAB. She earned her PhD in 2007 from Autonomous University of Barcelona. Currently Marta is working at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the Autonomous University of Barcelona as an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, where she has been training ECVO residents since 2005. During the last years, Marta has been actively working for the ECVO, as a member of the Evaluation Residency Committee (ERC), member of the Examination Committee (EC), and member of the Executive Committee. Marta is author of multiple international and national papers, as well of different chapters on international well-known ophthalmology books. Marta is an international lecturer, being her main areas of interest: cornea, foals ophthalmology and the ocular signs induced by infectious diseases. Besides ophthalmology, she enjoys spending time with her family and exploring Catalonian outdoors with her dogs.
Guillaume (Guy) Cornelis Maria Grinwis did his residency training at the Pathobiology department of the Veterinary faculty (Utrecht University, the Netherlands) leading to board certification as specialist in veterinary pathology by the Royal Netherlands Veterinary Association (KNMvD) in 1995.
His PhD thesis on health effects of some major aquatic pollutants in European flounder was published in May 2006.
Currently, he is a senior veterinary pathologist at the Veterinary Pathology Diagnostic Centre (VPDC) in Utrecht and is involved in post-graduate training of residents in veterinary pathology and residents in clinical veterinary sciences (e.g. ophthalmology, internal medicine, and oncology).
He has special interest in ocular pathology and liver pathology, and participates in (inter)national research projects on regenerative medicine and stem cells in the fields of liver disease, pathologies of the intervertebral disc, and tumors of endocrine organs.
David Gould
BSc(Hons), BVM&S, PhD, DVOphthal, Dipl. ECVO, FRCVS
Instructor
David graduated from the University of Edinburgh, and after a period in general practice moved to the University of Cambridge to complete a PhD in molecular genetics of inherited eye diseases, followed by a clinical residency and then lectureship in veterinary ophthalmology at the University of Bristol. Following this he joined Davies Veterinary Specialists, where he currently leads a 6-person ophthalmology team, including 3 residents. David is Chair of the European College of Veterinary Ophthalmology Examination Committee, overseeing the ECVO specialist exams. He is a member of the UK BVA/KC/ISDS Hereditary Eye Scheme and of its Working Party. David is also eye examiner for the UK Guide Dogs, responsible for eye testing of the UK guide dog breeding stock. David was awarded FRCVS status in 2017 for meritorious contributions to clinical practice.
Richard graduated from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London in 2003 and worked in general practice before undertaking an internship in ophthalmology at the Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, UK. Following this he undertook a three-year ECVO-approved residency in comparative ophthalmology at the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Royal Veterinary College. Following the successful completion of his training, Richard remained at the RVC as a clinician for a further year before joining North Downs Specialist Referrals, a large multidisciplinary referral hospital in the southeast of England, in July 2018. He became a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists in March 2019 after passing the qualifying examinations.
Björn Ekesten graduated from the veterinary programme at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in 1987. He defended his PhD in 1994 and became a diplomate of the ECVO in 1997. Dr. Ekesten’s research then brought him to the U.S., where he was visiting scientist at the Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute, Columbia University, New York and later held a position as Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of Clinical Electrodiagnostics in the School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. In 2007, he was appointed Professor of Clinical Neurophysiology at SLU. Björn Ekesten has also been a board member and served as President of both the ESVO and ECVO. Strong professional interests are retinal physiology and pathophysiology and Dr. Ekesten has studied retinal function and hereditary and non-hereditary retinal diseases in a number of species ranging from the mouse to the horse.
Dave Brodbelt graduated from the Cambridge Vet School in 1993 and undertook a residency in Veterinary Anaesthesia there. In 1998 he gained the RCVS Diploma in Veterinary Anaesthesia and became a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia. He then went into private practice for 4 years prior to undertaking an Epidemiology PhD based at the Epidemiology Unit of the Animal Health Trust / Royal Veterinary College looking at anaesthetic complications in practice (CEPSAF). Since 2005 he has worked at the RVC within the Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health (VEEPH) Group, initially as Lecturer in Veterinary Anaesthesia, and then Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Companion Animal Epidemiology, before becoming Professor of Evidence based Veterinary Medicine (EBVM). He is involved in research and teaching epidemiology, statistics and EBVM to undergraduates and postgraduates. His research interests focus on practice based research and research derived from electronic health records. He is a member of the VeNom Coding Group, part of the VetXML consortium and is co-project leader of VetCompass, the RVC based initiative that works with a large group of collaborating first opinion practices surveying disease trends in veterinary practice.
Dr. Boroffka studied at the Free University of Berlin Veterinary Medicine. She did her residency successfully at the Division of Diagnostic Imaging at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. There she worked as an assistant professor till 2016. During that period, she spent 1 year at the Department of Radiology at UC Davis, California, US, as an associate professor. Her research interests are diagnostic imaging of the eye and orbit. Furthermore, her special interest is comparative imaging of the thorax and abdomen. Besides being a passionate veterinary radiologist, she is mum of 2 great kids and loves creative work. She enjoys teaching veterinarians, trying to make them just as enthusiastic of diagnostic imaging as she is.
Dr. Elsa Beltran received her veterinary degree from the University Cardenal Herrera Ceu, Valencia, Spain, in 2002, following which she spent two years in general practice before undertaking an internship in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery at University of Barcelona, Spain. Dr. Beltran completed a neurology internship in 2006 followed by a residency in neurology and neurosurgery at the Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, United Kingdom. Dr Beltran obtained the Diploma of the European College of Veterinary Neurology in 2011 and afterwards she spent 4 years as Senior Clinician at the same institution. In 2014, she joined the Royal Veterinary College, University of London where she is currently working as Senior Lecturer in Neurology-Neurosurgery. She is the chairperson of the ECVN Credential and Recertification Committee. She is interested in all aspects of veterinary neurology and neurosurgery, but has a particular interest understanding neurological sequels in dogs after traumatic brain injury, all aspects of neuro-ophthalmology, neuroimaging and neurosurgery. Dr Beltran has a passion for learning on Veterinary Education and she obtained the postgraduate Diploma in Veterinary Education in April 2019.
Eva Abarca obtained her DVM degree from the Veterinary College at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, in 1997. She completed an American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists (ACVO) residency program and a Master's degree, becoming a Diplomate of the ACVO in 2012. From 2011 to 2013, she worked as an Ophthalmology Research Scholar in the Laboratory of Ocular Immunology, Toxicology, and Drug Delivery at North Carolina State University, USA. From 2013-2016 she was Assistant Professor in Ophthalmology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, AL, USA. In 2016, she moved back to Europe and joined the Ophthalmology Service at Vetsuisse Fakultat, Bern University, Switzerland, as a Senior Clinician. In 2018 Eva joined the Ophthalmology service at Ars Veterinaria Veterinary Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Her interests include the study of methods of sustained ocular drug release for the treatment of keratomycosis, as well as ex-vivo models to study ocular pharmacology.