science · 12 April 1997 · 27 years ago
death
Died 12 Apr 1997 at age 90 (born 18 Nov 1906).
American biochemist who shared (with Haldan K. Hartline of the U.S. and Ragnar Granit of Sweden) the 1967 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for “for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye.” In the early 1930s, in research at Harvard University, he identified that vitamin A was present in the retina of the eye. This was the first discovery of a biological role of a fat-soluble vitamin. Later, Wald expanded Granit’s work on the red, blue and green retinal cones in the eye by establishing the biochemical basis of their sensitivity to different parts of the light spectrum. He was active in political causes such as speaking out against the Vietnam War, nuclear proliferation and the military-industrial complex, and refused to do research on poisonous chemicals for political ends.
OnThisDay.net