Allvar Gullstrand(5 June 1862 – 28 July 1930) was aSwedishophthalmologistandoptician.
Allvar Gullstrand | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 5 June 1862 Landskrona,Sweden |
| Died | 28 July 1930(aged 68) Stockholm,Sweden |
| Known for | Mathematical model of the human eye, research on astigmatism |
| Spouse | Signe Breitholtz |
| Awards | Björkénska priset(1906) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine(1911),member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Ophthalmology |
| Institutions | University of Uppsala |
Life
editBorn atLandskrona,Sweden,Gullstrand was professor (1894–1927) successively ofeye therapyand ofopticsat theUniversity of Uppsala.He applied the methods of physical mathematics to the study of optical images and of the refraction of light in the eye. For this work, he received theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicinein 1911.
Gullstrand is noted also for his research onastigmatism[1]and for improving theophthalmoscopeand corrective lenses for use after removal of acataractfrom the eye.
Gullstrand married Signe Breitholtz (1862–1946) in 1885.
He was elected a member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciencesin 1905, and served on the Academy's Prize Committee for Physics. While serving on the committee in 1921, he used his position to blockAlbert Einstein,whose 14 nominations were far more than any other scientist, from receiving aNobel Prize in Physicsfor histheory of relativity,which Gullstrand believed to be wrong.[2]His fifty-page report stated, "Einstein's work is not useful enough for the human race...we should wait for measurable evidence.”[3]This was in conflict with earlier statements in the report, that the bending of light measured during a solar eclipse and the precession of the orbit of Mercury, were inconclusive, since the results might not be valid or explained by some other phenomenon.[4]Such arguments were reasonable when Einstein was first nominated in 1910, but not following very public confirmations in 1918. Such was Gullstrand's reputation that the committee, unable to give the prize to Einstein but unable to award it to anyone else, gave nobody the prize that year. (Einstein was instead retroactively awarded the 1921 prize for the photoelectric effect when Gullstrand was replaced byCarl Wilhelm Oseenin 1922, withNiels Bohrconcurrently being awarded the 1922 prize).
Due to the mathematical content of Gullstand's writing,Horatio Burt Williamslamented in 1926 that "there are few ophthalmologists and not many physiologists who are able to read [Gullstrand's papers] and for the same reason that the chemists ofGibbs'day were unable to read his work. "[5]
Gullstrand died in Stockholm in 1930, where he was interred atNorra begravningsplatsen.
Works
edit- 1904: "Zur Kenntnis der Kreispunkte",Acta Mathematica29:59–100.
- 1906: "Vie réelle optische Abbildung",Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar41
- 1908: "Die optische Abbildung im heterogenen Medien und die Dioptrik der Kristal-linse des Menschen",Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar43
- 1905: "Über Astigmatismus, Koma und Aberration",Annalen der Physik,(4), 18: 941-973
- 1907: "Tatsachen und Fiktionen in der Lehre von der optischen Abbildung",Archiv für Optik,vol.1 p. 2;
- 1911:Speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1911
- 1919: "Preparation of non spherical surfaces for optical instruments",Kgl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar,vol. 60: 155, abstracted inZeitschrift für Instrumentenkunde,vol. 41 (1921), pp. 123–25
- 1922: "Allgemeine Lösung des statischen Einkörperproblems in der Einsteinschen Gravitationstheorie",Arkiv för Matematik, Astronomi och Fysik16(8):1–15
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Gullstrand, Allvar (1890)Skand. Arch. f. Physiol.;and (1901)Arch. f. Ophth.,53, pp. 2, 185.
- ^Ravin, James G. (1999)."Gullstrand, Einstein, and the Nobel Prize".Arch Ophthalmol.117(5): 670–672.doi:10.1001/archopht.117.5.670.PMID10326967.
- ^Gallardo, P. Grima (May 2023)."A brief biography of Albert Einstein".ResearchGate.
- ^Isaacson, Walter (2007).Einstein: His Life and Universe.Simon & Schuster. pp. 312–3.ISBN9786177552849.
- ^Horatio Burt Williams(1927)Mathematics and the Biological Sciences,Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society33(3): 273–94 viaProject Euclid,quote from page 278
- Allvar Gullstrandon Nobelprize.orgincluding the Nobel Lecture December 11, 1911How I Found the Mechanism of Intracapsular Accommodation
- Maximilian Herzberger(1960) "Allvar Gullstrand",Journal of Modern Optics7:237–41.
- Ian R. Porteous(2001)Geometric Differentiation,pp 201,205,271,285,Cambridge University PressISBN0-521-00264-8.
- Frank Tsai (2009)Who was Allvar GullstrandfromPearls in Ophthalmology.
