Lorenz E. Zimmerman

Lorenz Eugene Zimmerman (15 November 1920, Washington, D.C. – 16 March 2013, Towson, Maryland) was an American ophthalmologist and an ophthalmic pathologist.

Zimmerman received his bachelor's degree from George Washington University in 1943 and his M.D. from the associated medical school in 1945. After completing his residency in general pathology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he was commissioned in 1950 as commanding officer of the 8217th Mobile Medical Laboratory in Korea. For his wartime service, he received the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit. In 1952 he was assigned to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, where he remained until his retirement in 2002 as emeritus chair of the Institute's department of ophthalmic pathology. He was also an associate professor from 1954–1963 and from 1963 a full professor of ophthalmology at George Washington University. From 1983 he was a professor of ophthalmology and pathology at Georgetown University.

In the 1930s and 1940s, ophthalmic pathology was a favored hobby of prominent ophthalmologists, but Zimmerman developed an academic framework for ophthalmic pathology and established it as an important subspecialty of ophthalmology. Zimmerman acquired a deep understanding in the clinical practice of ophthalmology, and through his study of diseased eye tissues and the art of clinicopathological correlative studies, provided answers from a general pathologist’s perspective for issues of ophthalmic practice. ... he developed new classifications of many ophthalmic entities including neoplasms, corneal dystrophies, inflammations, degenerations, congenital abnormalities, and other eye diseases.

• 1976 — Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine of the Jung Foundation for Science and Research
• 1978 — Donders Medal of the Netherlands Ophthalmological Society
• 1999 — Hellen Keller Prize for Vision Research of the Helen Keller Foundation
• 1999 — Lucien Howe Medal of the American Ophthalmological Society
• 2006 — Laureate Recognition Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology

• with Michael J. Hogan: Ophthalmic Pathology. 2nd edition, Saunders, Philadelphia 1962; 797 pages.