Karolinne Rocha Maia

Karolinne Rocha Maia, MD, PhD is a sub-subspecialist in Cornea & Refractive Surgery and member of the International Society of Refractive Surgery (ISRS) International Council. She is active in clinical research having published over 80 scientific works including peer review publications, book chapters, and abstracts in society meetings. Dr. Rocha received the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Achievement Award in 2012.

Dr. Rocha received her medical degree from University of Londrina in Paraná, Brazil in 2002. After obtaining her MD, she completed training in ophthalmology at Federal University of São Paulo and was certified by the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology in 2005. As a second year resident she received the XXXIII Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology Surgical Skills Prize. She completed her PhD “Optical aberrations in pseudophakic and cataractous eyes”, also at the Federal University of Sao Paolo. Dr. Rocha was the first ophthalmologist to be awarded the highest honor by the Brazilian government (CAPES-CNPq) for her PhD thesis.

Dr. Rocha completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cornea and Refractive Surgery at Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 2009 where she worked intimately with adaptive optics technology which utilizes deformable mirrors to correct and simulate higher order aberrations. She published one of the first clinical applications of adaptive optics characterizing the exact amount of higher order aberrations that balances depth of focus with quality of vision. Dr. Rocha completed a second Post Doctoral Research Fellowship at Emory University in 2010 where she played instrumental roles in the lead investigational study on corneal collagen cross-linking, corneal biomechanics and topography-guided laser ablation. She is currently in training at Cleveland Clinic Foundation – Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Rocha is a regular reviewer for the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, Cornea, the Journal of Refractive Surgery and Ophthalmology. She also serves as instructor for the annual American Academy of Ophthalmology Laser Refractive Surgery Course since 2009.