George Wald was an American scientist who studied pigments in the retina.
15 Facts About George Wald
2.
George Wald won a share of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Haldan Keffer Hartline and Ragnar Granit.
3.
George Wald was born in New York City, the son of Ernestine and Isaac Wald, Jewish immigrant parents.
4.
George Wald was a member of the first graduating class of the Brooklyn Technical High School in New York in 1923.
5.
George Wald received his Bachelor of Science degree from New York University in 1927 and his PhD in zoology from Columbia University in 1932.
6.
George Wald used this grant to work in Germany with Otto Heinrich Warburg where he identified vitamin A in the retina.
7.
George Wald then went on to work in Zurich, Switzerland with the discoverer of vitamin A, Paul Karrer.
8.
George 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.
9.
In 1934, George Wald went to Harvard University where he became an instructor, then a professor.
10.
George Wald was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1948.
11.
George Wald was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1950, the American Philosophical Society in 1958, and in 1967 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries in vision.
12.
George Wald spoke out on many political and social issues and his fame as a Nobel laureate brought national and international attention to his views.
13.
George Wald was a pacifist and vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and the nuclear arms race.
14.
George Wald reported that Gorbachev said he knew nothing about it.
15.
George Wald was married twice: in 1931 to Frances Kingsley and in 1958 to the biochemist Ruth Hubbard.