Quick Facts
Biography
Carmen A. Puliafito is an American ophthalmologist.
Career
Puliafito was born in Buffalo, New York. He has a degree in medicine from Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
After a career in medicine at various institutions, from 2001 to 2007 he was director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and chair of the department of ophthalmology. Puliafito was appointed Dean of the Keck school in December 2007. In 2012 he was 21st of the most highly-paid research university executives in the United States. In March 2016, Puliafito resigned as Dean and USC professor Rohit Varma was appointed interim dean.
He has served on the board of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
Research
Puliafito was one of the inventors of optical coherence tomography (OCT); for this work, James Fujimoto, Eric Swanson and Puliafito received a Rank Prize for Opto-electronics in 2002. In 2012 Fujimoto, Swanson and David Huang, with Puliafito and Joel Schuman, received an António Champalimaud Vision Award from the Champalimaud Foundation.
Puliafito participated in research into the use of bevacizumab for the treatment of retinal disorders.