Major contributions to our understanding of the human eye were made by Swedish ophthalmologist Allvar Gullstrand, particularly in the area of how the eye forms images. His mathematical approach to solving physiological problems had a great significance in the science of ophthalmology, and his discoveries won him the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology in 1911. He also developed a number of devices, such as the slit lamp and the reflector ophthalmoscope, which became valuable tools in eye examinations and for the treatment of optical disorders. Gullstrand also served for many years as a member, and later as president, of the Nobel Committee responsible for awarding the prize for physics.
Gullstrand was born June 5th, 1862, in Landskrona, Sweden, to Pehr Alfred Gullstrand and Sophia Korsell Gullstrand. His father, the city physician, influenced his decision against a career in engineering, in favor of one in medicine. After studying at universities in Uppsala, Sweden, Stockholm, and Vienna, Gullstrand received his medical degree from Stockholm's Royal Caroline Institute in 1888. He earned his Ph.D. one year later through a dissertation on astigmatism, an eye defect involving faulty curvature of the optic lens. Utilizing his early training and natural aptitude in engineering, he formulated complex theories in optics, which considerably advanced knowledge in this field.
Increases Understanding of How the Eye Functions
During this time, Gullstrand began working as chief physician at the Stockholm Eye Clinic, and by 1892 he was both clinic director and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute. He left the University in 1894 to serve as a professor at the University of Uppsala, where his research in geometrical optics began to flourish. His studies in dioptrics of the eye, or the science of refracted light and its effect on the retina, helped clear up certain misconceptions regarding the way the eye functions. One such misunderstanding concerned the accommodation theory of optics, by which the eye adjusts its focus on objects near and far. In his Handbook on Physiological Optics, German biologist and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz postulated that the eyes react to the problems of focusing by altering the curvature of their lens. When the eye focused on a nearby object, the lens became more convex (curving-outward), while focusing on something farther away made the lens more concave (curving-inward). In his commentaries on the third edition of the Handbook (1908), which he reedited, Gullstrand demonstrated that Helmholtz's theory accounted for only two-thirds of the accommodation. The remaining one-third could be explained by what Gullstrand called "extracapsular accommodation," where the fibers behind the lens made the necessary adjustments. The concept of the human eye as an optical system was among Gullstrand's most important achievements.
Gullstrand was given an honorary degree from Uppsala University in 1907 for his advances in eye research. He invented two devices commonly used even today in eye examinations--the slit lamp and the ophthalmoscope (sometimes called the Gullstrand ophthalmoscope), in cooperation with the Zeiss Optical Works in Germany. The slit lamp, consisting of a light used in combination with a microscope, permits doctors to pinpoint the location of a foreign object or tumor in three dimensional space. The ophthalmoscope is a combined light and magnifying lens enabling doctors to look at the retina at the back of the eye, as well as the optic disk. Doctors use it in an inspection for eye defects, as well as arteriosclerosis and diabetes. Gullstrand also designed aspheric lenses for those patients whose lenses had been removed as a result of cataracts.
Earns Nobel Prize for Work in Optics
The Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology was awarded to Gullstrand in 1911 for his work on the refraction of light and formation of images in the eye. In his lecture to the Nobel Academy, Gullstrand noted that the laws concerning the formation of optical images had been completely unknown when he began studying the eye lens, and that much of what had been known at that time had since been proven false. A special chair in physical and physiological optics was established for him in 1914 at Uppsala, and he became a member of the Nobel Academy's Physics Committee, and later its president, serving until 1929. Gullstrand received honorary degrees from the University of Dublin and the University of Jena in Germany. He was also awarded the Björken Prize from the Uppsala Faculty of Medicine, the Swedish Medical Association's Centenary Gold Medal, and the Graefe Medal from the German Ophthalmological Society.
Gullstrand married the former Signe Christina Breitholtz in 1885. The couple had a daughter who died while still a young girl. After retiring from Uppsala University in 1927, Gullstrand died of a stroke on July 21st, 1930.
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