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George Wald

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George Wald
George Wald in 1987
Born
George Wald

(1906-11-18)November 18, 1906
New York,New York,U.S.
DiedApril 12, 1997(1997-04-12)(aged 90)
Cambridge,Massachusetts,U.S.
Alma materNew York University
Columbia University
Known forPigmentsin theretina Wald's visual cycle
Spouses
  • Frances Kingsley (m. 1931; div.?) (1906-1980)
​
(m.1958)​
(1924-2016)
Children4
AwardsEli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry(1939)
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research(1953)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine(1967)
Scientific career
FieldsNeurobiology
InstitutionsHarvard University
University of Chicago

George Wald(November 18, 1906 – April 12, 1997) was an American scientist and activist who studiedpigmentsin theretina.He won a share of the 1967Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicinewithHaldan Keffer HartlineandRagnar Granit.[1]

In 1970, Wald predicted that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”[2][3][4]

Research[edit]

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 thatvitamin Awas a component of the retina. His further experiments showed that when the pigmentrhodopsinwas exposed to light, it yielded the proteinopsinand 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 aspectrophotometer,they were able to measure the light absorbance of the pigments. Since the absorbance oflightby retina pigments corresponds to thewavelengthsthat best activatephotoreceptor cells,this experiment showed the wavelengths that the eye could best detect. However, sincerod cellsmake 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 calledmicrospectrophotometry,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 thecone cells(Goldstein, 2001).

Biography[edit]

George Wald with wifeRuth Hubbardin 1967

George Wald was born inNew York City,the son of Ernestine (Rosenmann) and Isaac Wald,Jewishimmigrant parents. He was a member of the first graduating class of theBrooklyn Technical High Schoolin New York in 1923. He received his Bachelor of Science degree fromNew York Universityin 1927 and his PhD inzoologyfromColumbia Universityin 1932. After graduating, he received a travel grant from the US National Research Council. Wald used this grant to work in Germany withOtto Heinrich Warburgwhere he identifiedvitamin Ain the retina. Wald then went on to work inZürich,Switzerland with the discoverer of vitamin A,Paul Karrer.Wald then worked briefly withOtto Fritz MeyerhofinHeidelberg,Germany, but left Europe for theUniversity of Chicagoin 1933 whenAdolf Hitlercame to power and life in Europe became more dangerous for Jews. In 1934, Wald went toHarvard Universitywhere he became an instructor, then a professor.

Wald was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1948.[5]He was elected to theNational Academy of Sciencesin 1950, theAmerican Philosophical Societyin 1958,[6]and in 1967 was awarded theNobel Prizefor Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries in vision. In 1966 he was awarded theFrederic Ives Medalby theOSAand in 1967 thePaul Karrer Gold Medalof theUniversity of Zurich.[7]

Wald discussing the likelihood oflife on other planetsinWho's Out There?(1973).

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 apacifistand vocal opponent of theVietnam Warand thenuclear arms race.Speaking at MIT in 1969 Wald said, "Our government has become preoccupied with death, with the business of killing and being killed."[8]In 1980, Wald served as part ofRamsey Clark's delegation toIranduring theIran hostage crisis.

With a small number of other Nobel laureates, he was invited in 1986 to fly to Moscow to adviseMikhail Gorbachevon a number ofenvironmental questions.While there, he questioned Gorbachev about the arrest, detention and exile ofYelena Bonnerand her husband, fellow Nobel laureateAndrei Sakharov(Peace prize, 1975). Wald reported that Gorbachev said he knew nothing about it. Bonner and Sakharov were released shortly thereafter, in December 1986.

A member of the Circumcision resource center in Boston, he was one of the first scientists committed against circumcision but his article "Circumcision", rejected by the New York Times in 1975, was published in 2012 only by an English magazine (http://churchandstate.org.uk/2012/12/what-jewish-nobelist-george-wald-had-to-say-about-circumcision/ArchivedSeptember 21, 2020, at theWayback Machine).

Wald died inCambridge, Massachusetts.He was married twice: in 1931 to Frances Kingsley (1906–1980) and in 1958 to the biochemistRuth Hubbard.He had two sons with Kingsley—Michael and David; he and Hubbard had a son—the award-winning musicologist and musicianElijah Wald—and a daughter, Deborah, a prominent family law attorney. He was an atheist.[9][unreliable source?]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^The Nobel Foundation."The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1967".Nobelprize.org.Nobel Media AB 2014.RetrievedDecember 12,2015.
  2. ^Walter E. Williams (2015).American Contempt for Liberty.Hoover Institution Press. p. 374.ISBN978-0817918750.RetrievedNovember 15,2021.
  3. ^Mark J. Perry (April 21, 2015)18 spectacularly wrong apocalyptic predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, expect more this year.aei.org
  4. ^"The End of Civilization Feared by Biochemist".The New York Times.November 19, 1970.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedMay 24,2022.
  5. ^"George Wald".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.RetrievedDecember 16,2022.
  6. ^"APS Member History".search.amphilsoc.org.RetrievedDecember 16,2022.
  7. ^"List of Recipients".University of Zurich. Archived fromthe originalon July 21, 2015.RetrievedDecember 5,2015.
  8. ^Norman Solomon (September 6, 2010)A Speech for Endless War.zcommunications.org
  9. ^Donald E. Johnson (2010).Programming of Life.Big Mac Publishers. p. 123.ISBN9780982355466.Biologist George Wald dismissed anything besides physicalism with, "I will not believe that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible: spontaneous generation arising to evolution.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toGeorge Wald.

Two of George Wald's speeches can be read on-line:

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