Two Apple cores

The Old and the New Korps: two cores

The core of the laboratory is the people who do the research. While David Apple was alive, he called his researchers the Apple Korps. He liked the bilingual play on words and the reference to the German military Afrika Korps of World War Two led by the “Desert Fox”: Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

After David Apple died, his laboratory moved to the University Hospital of Heidelberg in 2012, where his former research fellow and an original Apple Korps member, Prof. Dr. med. Gerd Auffarth continued the work of the Apple Lab. Now one can talk of a New Generation of Auffarth-Apple Korps.

The First Apple Korps

David Apple trained over 200 students, doctors and technicians at his Charleston and Salt Lake City sites. Many of these “research fellows” and colleagues are now in key positions in ophthalmic education and practice worldwide..

In 2000, at the time of a formal presentation of an oil painting portrait for David J. Apple in Charleston, South Carolina, , Dr Apple is sitting with Ann Apple to his right.

Front row seated: Dr. Qun Peng, Daphne Hoddinott;
Middle row: Dr. Liliana Werner, Dr. Marcella Escobar, Beau Evans, Ann & David Apple, Lucia McLendon, Dr. Stella Arthur;
Third row: Dr. Roberto Bianchi, Dr. Gerd Auffarth, Maddie Manuel, Joyce Edmonds, Dr. Suresh Pandey.

When this photograph was taken, the press reported that a total of 210 Apple Korps members worked with David Apple throughout the years. Together they had made 509 publications, including 15 books and 68 book chapters and 365 journal articles. In addition, Dr Apple had presented 941 lectures, 67 videos and 61 posters.

Alpha & Omega

Pictured on the left is Dr Andreas Borkenstein from Graz in Austria, where he now runs a private cataract surgery practice. He was David’s last recruit to the Apple Korps. Next to Andreas is the first of the Apple Korps, George Wyhinny MD who is in clinical practice in Illinois, USA.

List of Apple Korps members

Ehud Assia, MD (Fulbright Scholar)

Gerd Auffarth, MD

Stella Arthur MD

Surendra Basti, MD

Roberto Bianchi MD

Charles Blotnick, MD

Gerald Brown, MD

Andreas F Borkenstein, MD

Mark D Borup

Paul Burton, MD

Ettaleah Bluestein,

Robert T. Casanova, Jr., MD

Victoria Castaneda-Clemenceau, MD

David B Cohen

J Craig Argyle

Michael E Daun, MD

James Deacon, MS

John T Edmonds Jr

Joyce Edmonds

Marcela Escobar-Gomez, MD

Beau Evans

Gerald Fishman, MD

Stephen C Gieser

Joseph M Googe

Alfred Guindi, MD

Todd D Gwin, MD

David Gwynn, MD

Michael Haik, MD

Bryan Hammer

Nancy Hamming, MD

Judy Hoggatt, MD

Daphne S M Hoddinott

Mike P Holzer, MD

Elke Imkamp-Gulden,

Robert Isaacs, MD

Richard A Isenberg, MD

Andrea M Izak, MD

David Kent, MD

Takaaki Kiyosawa, MD

Guy Kleinmann MD

Yoshinori Kurata, MD

Robin Lanford, MD

Kenneth E Langley

Ulrich Legler, MD, Ocular Pathology Fellow in 1990

Robert Leitch

Seung-Jeong Lim, MD

Edward Lim, MD

Katherine Loftfield, MD

Liwei Ma

Nick Mamalis, MD

Maddie Manuel

Robert M Manthey

Tamer A. Macky, MD

James E. Memmen, MD

Kevin Merkley, MD

Tod McMillan, MD

G N Natchiar, MD

Irmingard M Neuhann, MD

Thomas Newland, MD

Donald A Newman

Ute Nicholai, MD

Linda C Novak

Shunsaku Ohmi, MD

David O’Morchoe, MD

Suresh K Pandey, MD

Qun Peng, MD

Beth R Pfeffer

Kenneth L Piest MD

Timothy Powers, MD

Jagat Ram, MD (WHO fellow)

James J Reidy, MD

David Reinecke

Enrique Roig-Melo, MD

Isao Sakabe, MD

Josef M Schmidbauer, MD

Larry K Sherrer

John Sims, MD

Kerry D. Solomon, M.D.

Robert L Steinmetz

Ulf Stenevi, MD

Gesa Stroman, MD

Arata Sugita, MD

Manfred Tetz, MD

Rupal H. Trivedi, MD

Julie Tsai-Keh, MD

Luis G Vargas, MD

Nithi Visessook, MD, MS

David T Vroman, MD

Xiaohong Wang, MD

Daniel Wasserman, MD

Liliana Werner, MD, PhD

Theirry Wilbrandt, MD

Hal Wright, MD

George Wyhinny, MD HM

Brian Zaugg, MD

Jinsong Zhang

Apple Korps Reunions

1997 the first was held in Charleston SC.

1999 in Seattle, Washington, at the ASCRS with Harold Ridley present, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Implant.

2000 in Dallas, October 23, 2000 at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel,.

These reunions were generously sponsored by the Swedish company, Pharmacia. In Dallas, the special guest was Howard Fine, introduced by David an official Honorary Apple Korps member

Honorary Apple Korps

(after a list made by Maddie Manuel (DJA’s secretary) in 2002)

People named by David Apple who worked in association with his Center over the years.

Sir Nicholas Harold Ridley, KT, MD, FRSC, FRSc, FRS
Professor Peter Choyce, MD, FRSC
Morton Goldberg, MD. Professor and Chairman of Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL
Wilmer Institute, Baltimore, MD
Reijo Linnola, MD, Univ. of Oulu, Finland
Kensaku Miyake, MD, Shohzankai Medical Foundation, Nagoya, Japan
Randal Olson, MD, Professor and Chairman, Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
I Howard Fine MD, Eugene, Oregon.
Maurice Rabb MD, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL
Jinsong Zhang, MD, China Medical Univ., Shenyang, P. R. China

The New Core: Auffarth-Apple Korps.

In 2012 the laboratory moved to the University Hospital of Heidelberg, Germany where Prof. Dr. med. Gerd Auffarth has continued the work of the Apple Lab.

Since 2012, there is a new generation of researchers the Auffarth-Apple Korps.

Florian Auerbach MD

Victor Augustin MD

Mary Safwat Aziz Attia MD

Dmitrii Bagautdinov

Isabella Baur

Luise Blöck

Leoni Britz

Rebecca Buhl

Perfecto Cagampang III MD

Lizaveta Chychko

Daniela Emmerich

Mariyana Dzambazova

Hui Fang

Elfriede Friedmann PhD

Maximilian Friedrich

Canberk Göktepe

Helin Güngör

Maximilian Hammer

Simeon Hayvazov

Fritz Hengerer MD

Nikola Henningsen

Mike Holzer MD

Ramin Khoramnia MD

Matthias Koch MD

Maximilian Köppe MD

Florian Kretz MD

Grzegorz Łabuz PhD

Yumi Lee MD

Katharina Linz, MD

Stephanie Liebing

Patrick Merz PhD

Tadas Naujokaitis MD

Tabitha Neuhann MD

Lucia Poggi PhD

Piyanut Poompokawat

Ditte Rasmussen

Asu Rayamajhi

Tanja Rabsilber MD

Sonja Schickhardt PhD

Sweet Shah

Hyeck-Soo Son MD

Rasa Strupaite

Tamer Tandogan MD

Timur Yildirim MD

Dorottya Varadi

Hannah Wallek

Qiang Wang MD

Jan Weindler MD

Raquel Willrich

Weijia Yan, MS

Lu Zhang MD

Ling Zhao

{: .pic-right} At the ESCRS meeting in Milan September 2022. Prof. Auffarth with some of the 2022 Auffarth-Apple Korps. l>r: Tamer Tandogan, Tadas Naujokaitis, Maximilian Köppe, Weijia Yan, Lu Zhang, Rebecca Bühl, Nikola Henningsen, Grzegorz Łabuz, Isabella Baur, Victor Augustin, Luise Blöck, Gerd Auffarth, Hyeck-Soo Son, Donald Munro.