George Wald

Infobox Scientist
name = George Wald
box_width =


image_size =150px
caption = George Wald
birth_date = November 18, 1906
birth_place = New York City
death_date = April 12, 1997
death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts
residence = |citizenship =
nationality = American
ethnicity =
field = neurobiology
work_institutions =
alma_mater =
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = pigments in the retina
author_abbrev_bot =|author_abbrev_zoo =
influences =
influenced =
prizes = 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
religion = |footnotes = |

George Wald (November 18, 1906 – April 12, 1997) was an American scientist who is best known for his work with pigments in the retina. He won a share of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Haldan Keffer Hartline and Ragnar Granit.

Research

As a postdoctoral researcher, Wald discovered that vitamin A was a component of the retina. His further experiments showed that when the pigment rhodopsin was exposed to light, it yielded the protein opsin and a compound containing vitamin A. This suggested that vitamin A was essential in retinal function.

In the 1950s, Wald and his colleagues used chemical methods to extract pigments from the retina. Then, using a spectrophotometer, they were able to measure the light absorbance of the pigments. Since the absorbance of light by retina pigments corresponds to the wavelengths that best activate photoreceptor cells, this experiment showed the wavelengths that the eye could best detect. However, since rod cells make up most of the retina, what Wald and his colleagues were specifically measuring was the absorbance of rhodopsin, the main photopigment in rods. Later, with a technique called microspectrophotometry, he was able to measure the absorbance directly from cells, rather than from an extract of the pigments. This allowed Wald to determine the absorbance of pigments in the cone cells (Goldstein, 2001).

Biography

Wald was born in New York City to Isaac Wald and Ernestine Rosenmann, Jewish immigrant parents. He was a member of the first graduating class of the Brooklyn Technical High School in New York in 1922. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from New York University in 1927 and his PhD in zoology from Columbia University in 1932. After graduating, he received a travel grant from the US National Research Council. Wald used this grant to work in Germany with Otto Heinrich Warburg where he identified vitamin A in the retina. Wald then went on to work in Zurich, Switzerland with the discoverer of vitamin A, Paul Karrer. Wald then worked briefly with Otto Fritz Meyerhof in Heidelberg, Germany, but left Europe for the University of Chicago in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power and life in Europe became more dangerous for Jews. In 1934, Wald went to Harvard University where he became an instructor, then a professor. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1950 and in 1967 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries in vision.

Wald spoke out on many political and social issues and his fame as a Nobel laureate brought national and international attention to his views. He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and the nuclear arms race.

In 1980, Wald served as part of Ramsey Clark's delegation to Iran during the Iran hostage crisis.

With a small number of other Nobel laureates, he was invited in 1986 to fly to Moscow to advise Mikhail Gorbachev on a number of environmental questions. While there, he questioned Gorbachev about the arrest, detention and exile to Gorki of Yelena Bonner and her husband, fellow Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov, (Peace, 1975). Wald reported that Gorbachev said he knew nothing about it. Bonner and Sakharov were released shortly thereafter, in December, 1986.

Wald died in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

ee also

*Retinal

References

*Goldstein, B. 2001. "Sensation and Perception, 6th ed." London: Wadsworth.
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Dowling
first=John E
authorlink=
year=2002|month=Dec.
title=George Wald, 18 November 1906 - 12 April 1997
journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
volume=146
issue=4
pages=431-9
publisher= |location = United States| issn = 0003-049X| pmid = 12619664
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Hubbard
first=R
authorlink=
coauthors=Wald E
year=1999|month=
title=George Wald memorial talk
journal=Novartis Found. Symp.
volume=224
issue=
pages=5-18; discussion 18-20
publisher= |location = ENGLAND| issn = 1528-2511| pmid = 10614043
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Raju
first=T N
authorlink=
year=1999|month=Aug.
title=The Nobel Chronicles. 1967: George Wald (1906-97); Ragnar A Granit (1900-91); and Haldan Keffer Hartline (1903-83)
journal=Lancet
volume=354
issue=9178
pages=605
publisher= |location = ENGLAND| issn = 0140-6736| pmid = 10470741
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Jukes
first=T H
authorlink=
year=1997|month=Jul.
title=George Wald believed in apocalypse now
journal=Nature
volume=388
issue=6637
pages=13
publisher= |location = ENGLAND| issn = 0028-0836| pmid = 9214489| pmid = 9163416
doi = 10.1038/40251
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Dowling
first=J E
authorlink=
year=1997|month=May.
title=George Wald (1906-97)
journal=Nature
volume=387
issue=6631
pages=356
publisher= |location = ENGLAND| issn = 0028-0836| pmid = 9163416| pmid = 9214489
doi = 10.1038/387356a0
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
year=1985|month=Aug.
title=Nutrition classics. The Journal of General Physiology, Volume eighteenth 1935: Vitamin A in eye tissues. By George Wald
journal=Nutr. Rev.
volume=43
issue=8
pages=244-6
publisher= |location = UNITED STATES| issn = 0029-6643| pmid = 3900823
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Dowling
first=J E
authorlink=
coauthors=Wald G
year=1981|month=Mar.
title=Nutrition classics. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Volume 46, 1960: The biological function of vitamin A acid: John E. Dowling and George Wald
journal=Nutr. Rev.
volume=39
issue=3
pages=134-8
publisher= |location = UNITED STATES| issn = 0029-6643| pmid = 7027100
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Sulek
first=K
authorlink=
year=1969|month=Jul.
title= [Nobel prize for George Wald, Haldan Keffer Hartline and Ragner Granit in 1967 for discoveries concerning the primary biochemical and physiological phenomena occurring in the process of vision]
journal=Wiad. Lek.
volume=22
issue=13
pages=1258-9
publisher= |location = POLAND| issn = 0043-5147| pmid = 4897321
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Bouman
first=M A
authorlink=
year=1968|month=Jan.
title= [Ragnar Garnit, Haldan Keffer Hartline, George Wald, winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine]
journal=Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde
volume=112
issue=1
pages=23-5
publisher= |location = NETHERLANDS| issn = 0028-2162| pmid = 4875782
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Mikulski
first=T
authorlink=
year=1968|month=
title= [Noble laureate prize in the field of medicine for 1967: G. Wald, R. Granit, and H. K. Hartline]
journal=Postepy Biochem.
volume=14
issue=3
pages=473
publisher= |location = POLAND| issn = 0032-5422| pmid = 4879756
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Dolwing
first=J E
authorlink=
coauthors=Ratliff F
year=1967|month=Oct.
title=Nobel prize: 3 named for medicine, physiology award (George Wald, Ragnar Granit and Haldan Keffer Hartline)
journal=Science
volume=158
issue=800
pages=468-73
publisher= |location = UNITED STATES| issn = 0036-8075| pmid = 4860394
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
year=1955|month=Nov.
title=GEORGE WALD
journal=Am. J. Ophthalmol.
volume=40
issue=5 Part 2
pages=4-7
publisher= |location = Not Available| issn = 0002-9394| pmid = 13268547
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =

External links

* [http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1967/wald-bio.html Nobel Prize Biography]
* [http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/gwald.html A remembrance by fellow biologist John Dowling]
* [http://www.elijahwald.com/georgewald.html A remembrance by his son Elijah]
* [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua02000 Papers of George Wald : an inventory]

Two of George Wald's speeches can be read on-line:
* [http://www.elijahwald.com/generation.html A Generation in Search of a Future]
* [http://www.elijahwald.com/origin.html The Origin of Death]