Dutch ophthalmologist and geneticist, born on June 3, 1886.He died in 1979.Following medical research at the university of Utrecht, Petrus Johannes Waardenburg received training in ophthalmology and a doctorate in his thesis on the genetic basis of the physiological and pathological characteristics of the eye.Genetic eye diseases are a particular area of interest to him.At the age of 66, he published a landmark two-volume book, the genetics of ophthalmology, with professor adolph franchitte (1896-1968) and professor David klein (1908-).Waardenburg syndrome: an inherited congenital defect that includes pigmentation, epicanthus and lateral shift of the lacrimal point, and deafness.