Some people find their calling by taking the long way around — Vera Schmit-Eilenberger is one of them. It was not until the final semester of her medical studies in Heidelberg and Lyon that she decided to specialise in ophthalmology. A choice she says she has never once regretted. What followed was a medical odyssey across Europe: Karlsruhe, Leverkusen, Hamburg, Baden-Baden, London — until she finally dropped anchor in Zurich, where she still practises today.

But the scalpel tells only half the story. Since 2016, Vera has been cultivating a parallel life as a writer. She authors texts for the Swiss Academy of Ophthalmology, works as a ghostwriter and medical journalist, and advises companies on ophthalmological matters. And then there is her debut volume of poetry, soon to be published: Clay on Mars. A title that already hints at a mind capable of fusing the gravity of the earthly with the most distant horizons — a physician equally at home between microscope and metaphor.

Vera’s intellectual curiosity knows no disciplinary boundaries. Medical and scientific questions of all kinds draw her in magnetically — a quality that turns the specialist into a true border-crosser between fields.

What drives you, Vera?

“My insatiable thirst for knowledge. The joy of expanding my abilities as both a physician and an author — and of passing that on. I collect insights the way other people collect stamps: with passion and method. Then I share what I’ve gathered, shaping expertise into readable texts, medical precision into stories that can be understood.

The love for my children — one hundred percent. And friendship, human connection.

Beyond the clinic and the desk? Basketball on an over-55 team, quirky films in small arthouse cinemas. And the simple pleasures of life — “fries with canned beer.”