Robert B Aramant, PhD, FARVO

 

Robert B Aramant, PhD, FARVO, passed away on May 31, 2022, two months shy of his 90th birthday. 

Aramant was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He had a deep admiration of nature and at one time wanted to become a forest warden. He was an avid birder, prolific photographer, constant tinkerer and handyman. In his last years, his favorite spot was by the bay window of his beloved Bluebird Hill Farm in rural Kentucky.

Aramant came to science relatively late. After receiving his PhD in his late 40s, his research career took him to France, Canada, and throughout the US. In 1986, he met fellow ARVO member Magdalene Seiler, PhD, at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem NC, where they started working in retinal transplantation together. He continued working with Seiler in Boston, Mass.; Louisville, KY, and Los Angeles and Irvine, Calif, and remained a life-long friend.

Aramant was very passionate about his research. His dream was to restore the gift of sight to people by reversing retinal degeneration through transplantation of retinal sheets. Among his many accomplishments were inventing and producing instruments and techniques for use in his research. His career included a decade at University of Louisville where he filed four patents for his inventions. He also participated in a phase I/II clinical trial in collaboration with Dr. Norman Radtke (IND in 1999) to transplant immature retinal sheets with its retinal pigment epithelium to patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa and Age-related Macular Degeneration. He received the Humboldt-Prize for Senior US Scientists (The German Humboldt-Foundation) in 1993, and was designated an ARVO Silver Fellow in 2009.

*Information contributed by Magdalene J. Seiler