PABLO ARTAL · BIOGRAPHY
Background.
A career dedicated to understanding vision, training researchers and taking optics from the laboratory into practical applications.
Education and research
I studied physics at the University of Zaragoza and obtained my PhD in physics from the Complutense University of Madrid. I then undertook training and research stays at the University of Cambridge and the Institut d’Optique in Orsay, France.
I worked as a scientist at the CSIC Institute of Optics in Madrid until 1994, when I joined the University of Murcia as its first Professor of Optics. I am the founder and director of its Optics Laboratory (LOUM) and also a Distinguished Professor at Central South University in Changsha, China.
My research focuses on ocular optics and human vision, including ocular aberrations, adaptive visual simulation and ophthalmic instrumentation. Over my career, I have collaborated with laboratories across Europe, Asia, the United States and Australia. Several of these contributions have been incorporated into instruments used in research and clinical practice.
NOW · 2026
What I am working on
In 2026, I am working with my group on infrared vision through two-photon absorption and the optical mechanisms of myopia. I continue to develop ArtIOLs intraocular lenses with Voptica and explore ways to improve the eye’s peripheral optics. Alongside this research, I write and communicate science through books for general readers and the second edition of the Handbook of Visual Optics.
Mentorship, innovation and the scientific community
I have supervised around 50 PhD theses and given more than 1,000 talks in total, comprising invited lectures and presentations at international conferences. I am an inventor on around 40 international patents and a founder of several technology companies working on ophthalmic instrumentation and biomedical applications of optics.
From 2004 to 2007, I managed Spain’s National Physics Programme at the Ministry of Science and Technology. From 2019 to 2021, I chaired the Physics panel of the Spanish State Research Agency. I have also held editorial roles at international scientific journals and am the editor of the Handbook of Visual Optics.
I am a Fellow of Optica (formerly OSA), the European Optical Society (EOS), SPIE and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).
A career in numbers
- scientific articles
- 500+
- PhD theses supervised
- ≈50
- international patents
- ≈40
- citations · Google Scholar, October 2026
- 28,000+
h-index: 90 · Google Scholar, October 2026.
Scientific contributions
Instrumentation, ocular optics and translation into clinical practice.
Scientific contributions ↗