George Wald

George Wald (1906-1997), American biochemist and Nobel laureate, noted for his work on vision and also for his antiwar activities. Wald was born in New York City and educated at New York and Columbia universities. In 1934 he joined the faculty of Harvard University, becoming a full professor of biology in 1948.

Wald shared the 1967 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with the Swedish neurophysiologist Ragnar Granit and the American biophysicist Haldan Keffer Hartline. The three scientists were cited for their individual research into the physiology of vision. Wald demonstrated the reaction to light of the substance retinal in the retinal rods, thus helping to explain the changes that take place in the eye during light and darkness. He showed that the lack of retinal, which is formed from vitamin A (see Vitamin), brings on night blindness (see Vision) in a person whose diet is deficient in that vitamin.