Did you know these 7 men were ophthalmologists?

You know your immediate colleagues, but did you know that a global poker player, a New York Times bestselling author, and a foreign president round out the list of ophthalmologists?

Read our list of famous people you probably did not know are ophthalmologists to find out more on your well-known peers.

Related: Top 10 U.S. eye-healthy cities

Photo credit: Mayo Clinic

7. President Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad is currently President of Syria and commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces.

Between 1988 and 1992, he specialized in ophthalmology at Tishrin military hospital in Damascus. He later attended Western Eye Hospital in London and specialized in ophthalmology.

Optic relief: Why Trump and Clinton will be terrible patients

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6. Corey Hochman

Corey Hochman, MD, is on the 2015 World Poker Tour. According to the Global Poker Index (GPI), his GPI ranking is 270, and is 21^st for Arizona, USA All Time Money List. He currently practices ophthalmology in Phoenix, AZ.

Related: Do we jump on the $70,000 salary bandwagon?

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5. Robin Cook

Robin Cook, MD, is an American novelist who has had numerous books appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List. Dr. Cook was an ophthalmic resident at Harvard University before opening his own practice.

He has worked as an ophthalmologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Related: Best ophthalmic hospitals for 2015

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4. Rep. John Cooksey (R-LA)

Rep. John Cooksey, MD, FACS, was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana from 1997 to 2002. He is currently practicing ophthalmology in Monroe, LA.

More: Keratoconus as refractive surgery: Thinking outside the ‘cone’

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3. Charles Horace Mayo

Charles and his brother William were the leading figures in founding and developing the May Clinic in Rochester, MN. What started as St. Mary’s Hospital in 1889-the institution was run under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Francis of Rochester-the facility eventually became known for the surgical expertise of the Mayo brothers and their staff, according to Encyclopedia.

Many leading medical practitioners in various specialties came on board as the clinic grew over the years.

“The success of the Mayo Clinic is based not only on the high caliber of its physicians, but also on the ideals of cooperation, collaboration, and information sharing that the Mayo brothers promoted there. By 1915, the institution had also incorporated an educational branch, the Mayo Foundation for Education and Research, which was designed to train new generations of physicians in a variety of medical specialties,” the site wrote.

Related: Why glaucoma may not be the disease you think it is

Photo credit: Mayo Clinic

2. L. L. Zamenhof

L.L. Zamenhof-a Polish-Jewish ophthalmologist-created Esperanto in 1887 to be a second language that would allow people who speak different native languages to better communicate, yet maintain their own languages and cultural identities, according to Esperanto’s official website.

Esperanto fun fact: William Shatner starred in the only sci-fi movie made in Esperanto, “La Inkubo.”

Editorial: Ophthalmology and death by poison

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1. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)

Okay, you probably do know that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is an ophthalmologist, but we couldn’t exclude him from our list.

Instead, here is some of our most popular content featuring the presidential hopeful:

Sen. Paul to ophthalmologists: Get into politics to make a real change

In defense of Sen. Rand Paul

Sen. Rand Paul slams ICD-10, Obamacare

Why doctors have bigger houses than lawyers

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