Avinoam Bezalel Safran MD, studied at Geneva University, where he received his medical degree in 1971, and later his ophthalmologist diploma. He performed a fellowship in neuroophthalmology at the BPEI in Miami and a visiting fellowship in San Francisco, in 1977-1978. He was appointed associate professor of neuro-ophthalmology at the Geneva University in 1987, and professor of ophthalmology and chairman of Geneva University Department of Ophthalmology in 1998. In 2010, he became professor emeritus at Geneva University, and then was appointed associate professor at Sorbonne Universités, Paris-6.
His research mainly focused on cerebral reorganization following lesions in visual pathways by means of functional MRI; perceptual changes following visual loss, including on perceptual filling-in, spatial distortion and visual synesthesia; adaptation in sensori-motor coordination after visual field loss; and development and implantation of electronic retinal prostheses for the blind.
He (co-)authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, edited a major neuro-ophthalmology textbook, two books on neuroscientific approach to low vision, and one devoted to pain in ophthalmology. He presided over the International Neuro-Ophthalmology Society (INOS) in 2003-2004, served as vice-president of European Association for Vision and Eye Research (EVER) in 2005-2006, and on editorial boards of various international journals.
He presently is affiliated to the Institut de la Vision, Sorbonne Universités Paris-6, and to the Centre Hospitalier National d’Ophthalmologie des Quinze-Vingts, Paris.