George Wald 861770 212493234 2008-05-15T00:49:05Z Good Olfactory 6454287 Removed category "Anti-nuclear weapons activists"; Quick-adding category "American anti-nuclear weapons activists" (using [[WP:HOTCAT|HotCat]]) '''George Wald''' ([[November 18]], [[1906]] – [[April 12]], [[1997]]) was an [[United States|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== [[Image:Cone-response.svg|thumb|300px|Wald plotted the absorbance of rod pigment (black curve), then later the absorbance of cone pigments (red, green, and blue curves)]] 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 [[wavelength]]s that best activate [[photoreceptor cell]]s, this experiment showed the wavelengths that the eye could best detect. However, since [[rod cell]]s 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 cell]]s (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 [[United States National Academy of Sciences|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 [[Nizhny Novgorod|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]]. Wald was the grandfather of Zeke and Oliver Wald, the famous designers of the IHS American Heart Association's main building. ==See also== *[[Retinal]] ==References== *Goldstein, B. 2001. ''Sensation and Perception, 6th ed.'' London: Wadsworth. ==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] {{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1951-1975}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Wald, George}} [[Category:1906 births]] [[Category:1997 deaths]] [[Category:American neuroscientists]] [[Category:Neurobiologists]] [[Category:Visual system]] [[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]] [[Category:Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research]] [[Category:Jewish scientists]] [[Category:American tax resisters]] [[Category:Columbia University alumni]] [[Category:Harvard University faculty]] [[Category:New York University alumni]] [[Category:American anti-nuclear weapons activists]] [[ca:George Wald]] [[de:George Wald]] [[es:George Wald]] [[fr:George Wald]] [[hr:George Wald]] [[id:George Wald]] [[it:George Wald]] [[he:ג'ורג' ואלד]] [[sw:George Wald]] [[ja:ジョージ・ワルド]] [[pl:George Wald]] [[pt:George Wald]] [[ru:Уолд, Джордж]] [[fi:George Wald]] [[sv:George Wald]] [[zh:乔治·沃尔德]]