The 2024 National Award of the Russian Federation for outstanding achievements in charity work is presented to Georgy STOLYARENKO.
Georgy Stolyarenko was born on June 16, 1954 in Dzerzhinsk, the Gorky Region. He is founder and CEO of the Centre for Diagnostics and Surgery of the Posterior Segment of the Eye, ophthalmologist-surgeon, professor specialising in eye diseases, inventor.
Mr Stolyarenko graduated from Kirov Gorky Medical Institute in 1978. While working in the Semashko Gorky Clinical Hospital in 1978–1984, he regularly had to face traumatic eye lesions. As part of a group of specialists, he participated in the development of vitreotome, a device for the surgical treatment of retinal and vitreous pathology, as well as ultrasonic ophthalmofragmentre, a device for the surgical treatment of lens pathology. He developed and introduced a number of other domestic vitreoretinal instruments that have found wide application in military field and civil surgery.
In 1985–2011, Georgy Stolyarenko worked as a research fellow at the Research Institute of Eye Diseases of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (Moscow).
In 2000, Mr Stolyarenko was awarded the Russian Government Prize in Science and Technology for his inventions.
Mr Stolyarenko is the founder, chief physician and CEO of the Posterior Eye Diagnostics and Surgery Centre, which opened in 1998. He successfully combines organisational activities and clinical practice. He is recognised as one of the best ophthalmologists not only in Russia, but also in the world. He is the first Russian ophthalmologist to be named an honorary member of the Vitreous Society.
In his centre, Georgy Stolyarenko provides expensive medical aid for free to preserve the vision of people who suffered from terrorist attacks and combat actions. For the first time, such assistance was provided to victims of terrorist attacks in 2000 on Pushkin Square in Moscow and in 2004 in Beslan, North Ossetia.
After the armed conflict broke out in 2014 in the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, Georgy Stolyarenko decided to provide assistance to the soldiers from Donbass, as well as the affected children from Donbass, at his own expense.
In 2014, Georgy Stolyarenko organised a training course on the provision of medical care for eye injuries for staff of the microsurgery department at the Donetsk Republican Centre for Traumatology, Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery. He also personally financed the equipping of the Donetsk trauma centre. For many years, he has continuously supported Donetsk-based doctors by offering expert guidance and providing additional training. To date, 2,349 patients, both military personnel and civilians, have undergone surgery in Donetsk using his method.
Between February 2022 and May 2025, Mr Stolyarenko personally carried out 188 high-tech surgical procedures at his Moscow clinic to help preserve the eyesight of Russian soldiers and children from Donbass.
The vast majority of the treated military personnel were able to return to active duty.
His candidacy was put forward by Doctor Lisa’s Fair Aid International Charitable Foundation.