Prof. Dr. Antonia M. Joussen

Professor Dr. Antonia M. Joussen is a vitreoretinal surgeon. She holds a Chair position in ophthalmology at the Charité – University Medicine Berlin in Germany at two campuses, Campus Virchow-Klinikum and Campus Benjamin Franklin.

After attending medical school in Heidelberg, Vienna and London, she received her PhD from the University of Heidelberg in 1996. During her ophthalmology residency at the University of Heidelberg and RWTH Aachen University, Germany, she performed a research fellowship at the Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts, USA. In 2000, she was appointed as an instructor at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School. After returning to Germany, she received the Emmy Noether Career Development Grant (Scientific Excellence Program) from the German Research Foundation from 2002 to 2007.

While building her research group in the field of ocular angiogenesis, Professor Dr. Joussen received her vitreoretinal training with Professor Dr. Bernd Kirchhof at the University of Cologne. In 2006, when she was appointed Full Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology at the Universities of Regensburg, Göttingen and Düsseldorf, she chose to continue her work at the University of Düsseldorf, building the retina subspecialty and modernizing the pre-existing cornea focus of the department. In 2010, she rejected an appointment to chair the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Heidelberg and moved to Berlin.

Professor Dr. Joussen’s research group in Berlin has expanded the vitreoretinal focus of the department with the addition of an ocular oncology subspecialization. She carries out basic research on angiogenesis and diabetic retinopathy and has published more than 200 research articles. She also serves as Editor-in-Chief for Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.