CLAES HENRIK DOHLMAN M.D. Ph.D.

DOHLMAN, Claes Henrik M.D. Ph.D. Emeritus Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, died peacefully at his home in Weston, Sunday, July 14, 2024, at the age of 101. Dohlman was the recipient of many recognitions including the Laureate Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Friedenwald Award, the Castroviejo Medal, the Helen Keller Award and the Gullstrand Medal, given once per decade by the Swedish Medical Society. Most recently, at the age of 100, he travelled to Lisbon, Portugal, to receive the Champalimaud Vision Award, described by his peers as "the Nobel of Ophthalmology". After receiving doctoral degrees in his native Sweden, Dohlman moved in 1958 to the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, where in 1960, he established the first medical clinic devoted to diseases of the cornea and where he started the first Cornea subspecialty training program. In 1974, he was named Professor and department Chair at Harvard and Chief of Ophthalmology at the Infirmary. After more than a decade of administration and teaching and after training multiple generations of clinicians and scientists that are now leaders in the field, he returned to the laboratory, where he developed the Boston Keratoprosthesis, the first practical artificial cornea used on nearly 20,000 patients worldwide. His innovations restored vision to those for whom standard treatments failed and all revenue from his inventions went to support further research and training. He continued to conduct scientific research, develop new technologies and produce innovative treatments for chemical burns and glaucoma, with over 70 research publications in the past decade alone. Dohlman will be remembered for his generosity and positive outlook and for his unwavering support of friends, family and coworkers. He had a voracious appetite for knowledge and an energy that seemed boundless, both in the clinic and on the tennis court. The family home in Arlington and later, in Weston, was a social center for the local Swedish community and the site of countless midsommar, crayfish, Lucia and Christmas celebrations. He drove daily to work, until age 97, and travelled yearly to his native Sweden, where he longed for the land and the stones on which he played as a child, (Jag langtar marken, jag langtar stenarna dar barn jag lekt' - Verner von Heidenstam), and where he will be laid to rest. Dohlman was predeceased by his spouse of 70 years, Sigrid Carin Bjorklund (d. 2018); and sisters, Agneta Smith and Gunilla Lowenstein. He is survived by children, Lena, Jan, Ebba, Henrik, Peter and Erik; their spouses, twelve grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. A Memorial Service will be held in Boston at a future date.

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