Читать книгу Nobel - Michael Worek - Страница 37

Allvar Gullstrand (1862–1930)

1911 Physiology or Medicine

For his work on the dioptrics of the eye.

Allvar Gullstrand, eldest son of Dr. Pehr and Sofia Gullstrand, was born in Landskrona, Sweden. He began his studies at an early age, first in his hometown and later in Jönköping, a city on the southern tip of Lake Vättern, about 100 miles (150 km) east of Gothenburg.

In 1880 he enrolled in the prestigious Uppsala University, founded in 1477 and the oldest in the country. Gullstrand remained at this institution until 1885, when he decided to spend a year in Vienna, which at the time was the capital of powerful Austria-Hungary. From here he went on to Stockholm, where he resumed his studies. In 1888 he graduated with his degree in medicine, presented his doctoral thesis in 1890 and in 1891 was appointed a lecturer in ophthalmology. Three years later, after working briefly with the Swedish health ministry, he had the honor of being the first professor of ophthalmology at Uppsala University.

Gullstrand was married in 1885 to Signe Christina Breitholtz, and the couple had a daughter who died in infancy. Despite this personal loss, his professional career was very successful. On various occasions his work in the field of ophthalmology was distinguished with important prizes, including from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Medical Association and the Uppsala Faculty of Medicine.

Gullstrand’s service to the academic world, and his recognition for it, did not stop after he was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research into the dioptrics of the eye. He was a member of the Nobel Physics Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1911 to 1929 and was its chairman from 1922 to 1929.

Throughout a life dedicated to understanding the structure and function of the cornea and research into astigmatism, Gullstrand made many significant contributions to the field. Among other achievements, he improved the corrective lenses used after cataract surgery, invented the slit lamp used to study the eye, to which he gave his name, and reformulated German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz’s theory to develop a mechanism that allowed the eye to focus both near and far within certain limits. When he died in Stockholm on the July 28, 1930, Gullstrand left an important legacy that revolutionized the practice of ophthalmology.