Eduardo C. Alfonso was born in Cuba, Alfonso grew up in Puerto Rico before moving to the U.S. to attend college. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Yale College and medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine.

He joined Bascom Palmer in 1981 as an ophthalmology resident. Following his three-year residency, he completed fellowships at Harvard Medical School: a corneal and external disease fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary; ophthalmic pathology at the David G. Cogan Eye Pathology Laboratory ; and a research fellowship at the Howe Laboratory at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard University School of Medicine. He joined the Bascom Palmer faculty in 1986 as assistant professor and became professor of ophthalmology and the Edward W.D. Norton Professor in Ophthalmology in 1998.

He is the Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and holder of the Kathleen and Stanley J. Glaser Chair in Ophthalmology, is known for his clinical expertise and research in eye diseases, corneal surgery and ocular microbiology.