Balamurali Ambati

Balamurali Krishna "Bala" Ambati (born July 29, 1977)[1][2] is an American ophthalmologist, educator, and researcher. On May 19, 1995, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's youngest doctor, at the age of 17 years, 294 days.[3][4]

Balamurali Ambati
Ambati Balamurali Krishna
Born
Balamurali Krishna Ambati

(1977-07-29) July 29, 1977
Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
Duke University
Websitedoctorambati.com

Biography

Ambati was born into a Telugu family[5] in Vellore, Tamil Nadu in southern India.[1][6] His family moved to Buffalo, New York when he was three.[1][6] According to his parents,[7] Ambati was doing calculus at the age of four.[6] The family later moved to Orangeburg, South Carolina, and then to Baltimore, Maryland.[1] Ambati initially attended high school at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute before transferring to Baltimore City College,[8] graduating in 1989 at age 11.[1][9][10] Also at age 11, he co-authored a research book on HIV/AIDS titled AIDS: The True Story – A Comprehensive Guide.[11] He graduated from New York University at the age of 13. He graduated from Mount Sinai School of Medicine with distinction at the age of 17,[9][10] scoring above 99 percent on his National Medical Boards[10] and becoming the world's youngest doctor in 1995.[2][10]

Ambati expressed that he disliked being compared to Doogie Howser, the fictional teenage doctor.[12] Ambati described himself as being popular with people and, standing 6 feet tall, did not appear too young for a career in medicine[12]—when he entered medical school at 14 years old, he appeared just like the older medical students.[13]

He completed an ophthalmology residency at Harvard University, where he developed strategies to reverse corneal angiogenesis[14] after becoming a winner at the Westinghouse Science Talent Search and the International Science & Engineering Fair and becoming a National Merit Scholar. He received the prestigious Raja-Lakshmi Award in 1995 from Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai.

After completing a fellowship in cornea and refractive surgery at Duke University in 2002, he joined the faculty of the Medical College of Georgia, where he practiced clinical ophthalmology and conducted research in such areas as corneal angiogenesis and outcomes of corneal and refractive surgery.

He also volunteers with the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital, traveling to under-privileged countries to practice and teach ophthalmic surgery.[8][15] In 2008, he earned a PhD in Cell Biology from the Medical College of Georgia.[16] In 2011, Ambati donated a kidney to a 16-year-old boy from Idaho.[8][17]

From 2008 to 2016, Ambati worked at the Moran Eye Center and served as professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, adjunct associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy, and director of corneal research at the University of Utah School of Medicine.[16][18] As of 2017, he practices in Eugene, Oregon at Pacific Clear Vision Institute and in Ketchum, Idaho.[16][18][19]

Family

Ambati's father was an industrial engineer, while his mother was a math teacher.[1]

Balamurali wrote a book on AIDS at age 11 with his brother Jayakrishna, who is also a physician.[6][9][11]

Awards

He won the Ludwig von Sallmann Clinician-Scientist Award from the ARVO Foundation in 2014[20] and the Troutman-Véronneau Prize from the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology in 2013.[21] He was also awarded the Fourth IRDS Awards for Medicine for his achievements, awarded by the Lucknow-based Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS).[22]

See also

References
  1. Stanley, Alessandra (May 7, 1990). "Prodigy, 12, Fights Skeptics, Hoping to Be a Doctor at 17". The New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  2. "BALA AMBATI, M.D., PH.D." Moran Eye Center. Archived from the original on March 1, 2011. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  3. Notable Firsts. Indian American Heritage Project
  4. Craig Glenday (2011). Guinness World Records 2011. Bantam Dell. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-440-42310-2. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  5. "Telugu professors do homeland proud | Hyderabad News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  6. "American Topics: A Doctor at 17, He Next Hopes To Be a Nobel Prize Winner". The New York Times. May 20, 1995. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 21, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. Calvert, Scott (December 6, 2013). "Baltimore whiz kid now a Utah eye surgeon". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  9. Mooney, Mark (May 16, 1995). "A DOCTOR - AT 17 JUST DON'T CALL MT. SINAI GRAD DOOGIE". New York Daily News. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  10. Jacobson, Joan (May 18, 1995). "Baltimore whiz kid, 17, earns his medical degree". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  11. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1991. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  12. The Victoria Advocate. Teen doctor: 'Just don't call me Doogie'. May 17, 1995. Accessed 2013-04-02.
  13. Vitals.com. Dr. Balamurali Ambati, Real Life Doogie Howser, Has Greater Aspirations Archived October 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. April 8, 2011. Accessed 2013-04-03.
  14. Ambati, Balamurali K.; Nozaki, Miho; Singh, Nirbhai; Takeda, Atsunobu; Jani, Pooja D.; Suthar, Tushar; Albuquerque, Romulo J. C.; Richter, Elizabeth; Sakurai, Eiji; Newcomb, Michael T.; Kleinman, Mark E.; Caldwell, Ruth B.; Lin, Qing; Ogura, Yuichiro; Orecchia, Angela; Samuelson, Don A.; Agnew, Dalen W.; St. Leger, Judy; Green, W. Richard; Mahasreshti, Parameshwar J.; Curiel, David T.; Kwan, Donna; Marsh, Helene; Ikeda, Sakae; Leiper, Lucy J.; Collinson, J. Martin; Bogdanovich, Sasha; Khurana, Tejvir S.; Shibuya, Masabumi; Baldwin, Megan E.; Ferrara, Napoleone; Gerber, Hans-Peter; De Falco, Sandro; Witta, Jassir; Baffi, Judit Z.; Raisler, Brian J.; Ambati, Jayakrishna (October 1, 2006). "Corneal avascularity is due to soluble VEGF receptor-1". Nature. 443 (7114): 993–997. Bibcode:2006Natur.443..993A. doi:10.1038/nature05249. PMC 2656128. PMID 17051153.
  15. ORBIS
  16. "Bala Ambati, M.D., PhD, MBA". Pacific ClearVision Institute. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  17. Kaminer, Ariel; Ambati, Bala (June 24, 2011). "Life Preserver". The New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  18. "Armstrong-Root Welcomes World Renowned Ophthalmologist Dr. Bala Ambati". Armstrong-Root. April 27, 2017. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  19. "Dr. Bala Ambati - LASIK Eugene - Cataract Surgeon Florence, OR - PCVI".
  20. Ludwig von Sallmann Clinician-Scientist Award recent recipient Archived August 10, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. arvo.org.
  21. Dr. Bala Ambati Claims Prestigious Troutman-V茅ronneau Prize and Celebrates Recent Publication Archived July 30, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. utah.edu.
  22. IRDS Award Winners 2013. irdsindia.com
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