László Z. Bitó

His research led to the development of latanoprost (Xalatan), the drug that has saved the sight of millions of glaucoma sufferers.

[1] Upon retiring from Columbia University as Emeritus Professor of Ocular Physiology, he returned to Hungary and his first love of writing.

Of his 14 nonscientific books—novels, essays, and three anthologies of some of his more than a hundred newspaper and magazine articles—some have appeared in translations in half a dozen countries.

László Bitó gradually moved back to Hungary after the fall of Communism and started a new career as a writer.

Istenjárás (Quick Step) and Az Ötödik Lovas (The Fifth Horseman) were written in English but published only in Hungarian translations.

The award recalled the traditions of Bard, when it welcomed students fleeing tyranny after the Second World War and after the Soviet invasion of Hungary.