Irene Helen Ludwig, M.D. was born December 30, 1954 in NYC, to German immigrant parents. She attended public school in Flushing, Queens, and then commuted to Hunter College High School in Manhattan (1966-1972). She attended Queens College of CUNY from 1972-1975, and Cornell University Medical College from 1975-1979. Her general surgical internship at the University of Virginia (1979-1980) was followed by ophthalmology residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (1980-1983). She performed an NEI fellowship (1983-1985), and pediatric ophthalmology fellowship with Marshall Parks in Washington, DC (1985-1986).

She worked at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown (1986-1991), NY, including appointments to both Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Albany Medical College. While there, she analyzed Marshall Parks’ long-term results in accommodative esotropia treatment. She then worked one year at Eye Center South, Dothan, AL, before receiving an appointment to LSU Medical Center, New Orleans (1992-2000). Her research there was primarily on healing after strabismus surgery, with particular focus on scar stretching. This resulted in her AOS thesis in 1999. She also began her work on eye muscle trauma. She moved to the Nashville TN area with her family in 2000, and began private practice in several locations. She maintained active participation with the ophthalmology department at LSU until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She worked in the ophthalmology department of the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, 2002-2008. She now practices at Eye Center South, Dothan AL, and Southeast Eye Specialists, Nashville.

Dr Ludwig’s book, Strabismus Surgery. Innovative and Classical Approaches, was published in January 2021. She received the David Friendly Memorial award from the Costenbader Society in 2016, and is now serving on the board of that society. She has developed a number of new strabismus repair procedures, particularly after trauma, and has had patients referred for surgery from worldwide locations. She has identified, named, and developed repairs of several disorders which are now part of the international strabismus vocabulary, including “stretched scar”, and “flap tear”. She is now developing procedures to correct strabismus by redirecting muscle pulleys without tendon disinsertion.

Dr Ludwig lives Brentwood, TN, with her fiancé, Peter von Kamecke, where they are renovating another historic home. Her sons, Keith and Peter Minor, live nearby. She enjoys competitive ballroom dancing, yoga, piano, antique collecting, textile restoration, environmental activism, art, sewing, and design. Her PPE sewing project during the COVID lockdown was featured on Nashville television.