John G. Lindberg

John Gustaf Lindberg (22 June 1884 – 23 November 1973) was a Finnish ophthalmologist who was the first to describe exfoliation syndrome, an age-related degenerative disease of the eye that often complicates glaucoma and cataract surgery, in his doctoral thesis that he wrote in St. Petersburg and defended in March 1917 in Helsinki, Finland, at that time a Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire.

Early years John Gustaf Lindberg was born to Gustaf Robert Lindberg (1844–1929), a Finnish engineer working in St. Petersburg, Russia, as a department manager in St. Petersburg Metalworks supervising the construction of boilers for steam engines and of metal bridges, and Anna Heloise Rautelin. Lindberg was the second of three boys in the family. St. Petersburg thus became his hometown, a fact that was to influence his career. The family moved to Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland in the early 1890s after his father had been offered a position as the Director of Technology in a recently founded company Kone ja Silta Oy (literally, Machine & Bridge, today Wärtsilä Corporation).

In 1903, at the age of 19, Lindberg matriculated from the Swedish speaking Real Lyceum in Helsinki. After preparatory studies for three years in botany, zoology, physics and chemistry in the Imperial Alexander University in Finland, he passed the medicophile examination, a mandatory step before applying to the Faculty of Medicine. He graduated in 1914 as Licentiate of Medicine. By that time, he had made up his mind to become an ophthalmologist after having frequently assisted during his university years in a private eye hospital in Helsinki, run by Johannes Silfvast (1867–1932).

Specialization Lindberg spent the rest of 1914 working as an intern at the Department of Surgery in Maria Municipal Hospital, Helsinki, and as a voluntary unpaid resident in the Helsinki University Eye Hospital. After mastering the basics, he enrolled in 1915 to the Imperial Ophthalmic Hospital in St. Petersburg. He defended it on May 30, 2017. Because the thesis was written in the Imperial Ophthalmic Hospital, his opponent was Väinö Grönholm (1868–1939) from the Imperial Alexander University in Finland where the thesis also was defended. The thesis fulfilled the academic requirements for the title of Doctor in Medical Sciences.

Escape from Russian Revolution The increasing tumult of World War I (1914–1917) brought the young family to Helsinki in 1917 after the February Revolution broke out following significant military setbacks for the Russian Army. On 6 December 1917, Finland separated from Russia and declared independence as a Republic. Lindberg first briefly practiced in the Eye Clinic of the Deaconess’ Hospital in Vyborg, Eastern Finland. He then took a voluntary appointment as Resident ophthalmologist in the University Eye Hospital in Helsinki and held this position until 1920. In 1989, Tarkkanen and Henrik Forsius from University of Oulu, Finland, published an English translation of Lindberg's thesis as a supplement to Acta Ophthalmologica, so as to make it widely available to researchers.

The 1st International Workshop on Exfoliation Syndrome was held in 1987 in Helsinki, Finland, followed by the 2nd in 1992 in Genoa, Italy, and the 3rd in 1995 in Erlangen, Germany. These were followed by informal Think Tanks organized in New York by Robert Ritch from 1999 onward. In 1998, an international society for investigators sharing an interest in exfoliation syndrome was founded. It adopted the name “The Lindberg Society”, and has since met regularly across the world.

Personal life On 1 April 1913 Lindberg married Lilla Elisabeth Fazer, daughter of the Consul General Konrad Georg Fazer and Jeanne Barrault. Lilla was to help John as his research assistant, copy typist and assisting nurse. Their first child Wanda Elisabeth was born in 1914, followed by Roger in 1915, and Konrad in 1918.