Historical Background
22 January 2026 2026-02-16 14:24Historical Background
2015
The Laboratory of Vision and Optics Arts (LVO) in its current stucture and legal status was established by the Government Gazette 1797 / 20-8-2015, No. 8860. The LVO operates as an independent Laboratory of the Medical School of the University of Crete. In our future plans, the transformation of the Laboratory into an independent Institute and the further development of its activities with its transfer to independent and more suitable spaces is still a priority. Plans on the new housing space have been completed.
2005
The Laboratory of Vision and Optics Arts (LVO) in its current stucture and legal status was established by the Government Gazette 1797 / 20-8-2015, No. 8860. The LVO operates as an independent Laboratory of the Medical School of the University of Crete. In our future plans, the transformation of the Laboratory into an independent Institute and the further development of its activities with its transfer to independent and more suitable spaces is still a priority. Plans on the new housing space have been completed.
2004
The selection of Athens as the city to host the 2004 Olympic Games, resulted in the need for a specialized centre of diagnosis/treatment/research as regards the athletes’ vision.
2003
In 2003 the operation of the intradepartmental postgraduate program of studies entitled “OPTICS AND VISION” commences, with the participation of the University of Crete Departments of Medicine, Physics and Mathematics.
2002
In 2002, the establishment of a National Centre for Sports Vision (NCSV) was proposed, with VEIC as its core.
1999
In 1999 the specialization seminars (Mini Fellowships) in refractive surgery commence and the International Ophthalmology Training Centre (IOTC) is founded.
1989
Following a donation by Theodore Vardinoyiannis in 1989, EMMO purchases its initial equipment and is renamed into VEIC (Vardinoyiannion Eye Institute of Crete). During the last decade VEIC had developed highly important research activities, especially in the fields of refractive surgery and eye vision, which attracted the interest of the international ophthalmologic and optometric community. VEIC today is one of the Laboratories of LVO, University of Crete School of Medicine.
The Institute education activities commence at VEIC in 1989 with the organization of the Aegean Retina and Aegean Cornea international conferences.
1987
Although the Laboratory of Vision and Optics (LVO) was only recently established, it actually started operating in 1987 under the name EMMO (Laboratory of Transplants and Eye Microsurgery).