He earned his university degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Università di Firenze,Italy,with a score of 110/110 with honors and there he got his Specialization in Ophthalmology with a score of 70/70 with honors.
After his specialization he attended several important hospitals among which the
Wills Eye Hospital of Philadelphia (Chief Prof. W. Tasman), the Vitreoretinal Departments of Rotterdam Eye Clinic (Chief Dr. R. Zivojnovic), of Moorfields Eye Hospital of London (Chief Prof. P. Leaver), of Augen Klinik of Frankfurt (Chief Prof. C. Eckardt), of IMO Barcelona (Chief Prof. B. Corcostegui).
Since 2015 he has been Associate Professor at the Università di Firenze.
Since 2019 he has been Full Professor at the University of Florence and since 2020 at the Catholic University of Rome.
In the 2013 he received the Innovative Surgeon of the year award, Alfred Mann Foundation Award for Scientific Achievement, Los Angeles (USA).
More recently he was awarded with the title of Commentator of Italian Republic and also received the Bronze Medal for public health assistance.
He also received the American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement Award 2017 .
Since 2015 he is International Representative Member of the American Society of Retina Specialist.
He was the first surgeon who has implanted the first commercial Argus 2 Prosthesis in 2011 in Pisa, Italy.
He has been Visiting Professor at the NAGOYA CITY University – JAPAN, Visiting Professor for the Artificial Vision Project at the Karlsruhe Ophtalmology Department –GERMANY, Visiting Professor for the Artificial Retina at the King Khaled Eye Hospital – Rijadh-
SAUDI ARABIA, Visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University – ISRAEL and Collaborator with Bascom Palmer Eye Institute – Miami – USA.
He also has international registered patents:
– Colored Perfluorocarbon Liquids. PCT/EP2011/002748
– Device for vitrectomy surgical operations. PCT/IB2013/055267
– Ultrasound vitrectomy probe. PCT/EP2015/025019
Professor Rizzo has published over 200 articles on vitreoretinal diseases and 10 chapters in vitreoretinal books.
