Karl Jacobi, MD, will be recognized as an Honored Guest at the Opening General Session of the 2008 Annual Symposium of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, it was announced today.

Dr. Jacobi will be recognized as a leader in the development and teaching of intraocular lens implantation surgery in Germany and Europe.

Dr. Jacobi was born in 1933 and grew up in a small town situated near the Rhein River. In 1961, he graduated from the University of Marburg, which was founded in 1527.

Dr. Jacobi began his residency in natural sciences and physiology at the University of Kiel in northern Germany and continued his ophthalmology residency in Marburg and Cologne. In 1972, he became Head and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Giessen.

After studying with Cornelius Binkhorst, MD, in Holland and John Pearce, MD, in England, Dr. Jacobi began implanting IOLs in 1973—starting with the Binkhorst 4-loop IOL after intracapsular cataract extraction and then, in 1974, the Binkhorst  2-loop IOL and the Pearce posterior chamber IOL after extracapsular cataract extraction.

Richard Kratz, MD, performed the first phacoemulsification procedure in Dr. Jacobi’s department in Giessen in 1974. This was the beginning of the transition from planned extracapsular cataract extraction to phacoemulsification.

In 1985, Dr. Jacobi founded the German Intraocular Implant Society (DGII). He served as the first president of the society and organized several national and international congresses in Giessen and Heidelberg. He also presented annual courses and symposia on IOL implantation, a field that began very slowly in Germany at the beginning of the 1980s.

Dr. Jacobi retired from the university in 2000 and worked in private practice until 2007.

The ASCRS Symposium on Cataract, IOL and Refractive Surgery is scheduled for April 4–9, 2008, at McCormick Place, West Building, Chicago, IL.