Manuel John Chaknis, MD

Dr. Manuel J. Chaknis is an Atlanta native and a board-certified ophthalmologist with over 30 years of eye care experience. Prior to joining the inpatient and ED Consult Eye Team at Emory, he spent over 25 years in group, solo, and corporate ophthalmology and corporate LASIK practices. His areas of expertise are in LASIK, PRK, and corneal surgery, performing over 30,000 primary surgeries, while practicing general ophthalmology in Atlanta and Augusta, GA, and Birmingham, AL. 

Dr. Chaknis is an Honors graduate of the University of Chicago. He was elected to Sigma Xi Scientific Society and received research grants for his work in glaucoma research at the Eye Research Labs there. As a graduate student locally at Georgia State University, he completed his MS degree in Microbiology while doing research on ocular and contact lens-related fungal and bacterial infections in conjunction with Dr. Louis Wilson, then-Chief of the Cornea Section and Chairman of the Emory Department of Ophthalmology. 

For both medical school and ophthalmology residency, Dr. Chaknis was in Augusta, GA at the Medical College of Georgia. He was an Honors graduate while also serving as President of the Class of 1992 and a member of the medical school Honor Council. Continuing his interest and work in ophthalmology, during residency Dr. Chaknis received research grants for retinal research in the lab of Keith Green, Ph.D., Director of Ophthalmic Research at MCG, and he finished there as Chief Resident. 

Continuing his interest in the emerging field of laser refractive surgery, Dr. Chaknis completed a fellowship year at Corneal Consultants of Indiana and the Cornea Research Foundation in Indianapolis. There he received training in LASIK and PRK, while also learning corneal transplant surgery and corneal disease management under the auspices of internationally known corneal surgery clinicians and researchers Dr. Francis Price and Dr. William Whitson. In addition, in 1996, Dr. Chaknis was one of the first ophthalmologists in the US to personally have LASIK eye surgery. 

Although not in academic ophthalmology until 2025, Dr. Chaknis has presented posters and lectures on glaucoma, retina, cornea, and laser refractive topics over the decades at the AAO, ASCRS, and ARVO ophthalmology meetings. He has been a wet labs instructor for ophthalmologists at the AAO and ASCRS meetings for LASIK, PRK, and PKP surgeries, as well as serving as an article reviewer for the journals Ophthalmology and the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. Dr. Chaknis has also been fortunate to twice visit the Agarwal Eye Hospital in Chennai, India, participating in both cataract missions work and educational training and lectures there on LASIK and PRK surgery. (continued on next page) 

On a more personal level, Dr. Chaknis grew up here in Atlanta as part of a large extended family of Greek origin. His father, John M. Chaknis, was known to many thousands of Georgia Tech students starting in the mid-1950s, feeding them 3 meals daily on East Campus at Junior’s Grill. When not trying to help patients with their eyes, Dr. Chaknis spends most of his time with his wife and children, with special interests in music (classical, punk and classic rock), watching rugby, Australian Rules football and GA. Tech and Alabama football, and reading and watching documentaries about WWII.