Allvar Gullstrand (5 June 1862 – 28 July 1930) was a Swedish

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

and

optician An optician is an individual who fits glasses or contact lenses by filling a refractive prescription from an optometrist or ophthalmologist. They are able to translate and adapt ophthalmic prescriptions, dispense products, and work with acces ...

Life

Born at

Landskrona Landskrona is a town in Scania, Sweden. Located on the shores of the Öresund, it occupies a natural port, which has lent the town at first military and subsequent commercial significance. Ferries operate from Landskrona to the island of Ven, an ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, Gullstrand was professor (1894–1927) successively of eye therapy and of

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of optical instruments, instruments that use or Photodetector, detect it. Optics usually describes t ...

at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University (UU) () is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially founded in the 15th century, the university rose to s ...

. He applied the methods of physical mathematics to the study of optical images and of the refraction of light in the eye. For this work, he received the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

in 1911. Gullstrand is noted also for his research on

astigmatism Astigmatism is a type of refractive error due to rotational asymmetry in the eye's refractive power. The lens and cornea of an eye without astigmatism are nearly spherical, with only a single radius of curvature, and any refractive errors ...

and for improving the

ophthalmoscope Ophthalmoscopy, also called funduscopy, is a test that allows a health professional to see inside the fundus of the eye and other structures using an ophthalmoscope (or funduscope). It is done as part of an eye examination and may be done as part ...

and corrective lenses for use after removal of a

cataract A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens (anatomy), lens of the eye that leads to a visual impairment, decrease in vision of the eye. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colours, blurry or ...

from the eye. Gullstrand married Signe Breitholtz (1862–1946) in 1885. He was elected a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

in 1905, and served on the Academy's Prize Committee for Physics. While serving on the committee in 1921, he used his position to block

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

, whose 14 nominations were far more than any other scientist, from receiving a

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

for his

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated physics theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical ph ...

, which Gullstrand believed to be wrong. His fifty-page report stated, "Einstein's work is not useful enough for the human race...we should wait for measurable evidence.” This was in conflict with earlier statements in the report, that the bending of light measured during a solar eclipse and the precession of the orbit of Mercury, were inconclusive, since the results might not be valid or explained by some other phenomenon. Such arguments were reasonable when Einstein was first nominated in 1910, but not following very public confirmations in 1918. Such was Gullstrand's reputation that the committee, unable to give the prize to Einstein but unable to award it to anyone else, gave nobody the prize that year. (Einstein was instead retroactively awarded the 1921 prize for the photoelectric effect when Gullstrand was replaced by

Carl Wilhelm Oseen Carl Wilhelm Oseen (17 April 1879 in Lund – 7 November 1944 in Uppsala) was a theoretical physicist in Uppsala and Director of the Nobel Institute for Theoretical Physics in Stockholm. Life Oseen was born in Lund, and took a Fil. Kand. degree ...

in 1922, with

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...

concurrently being awarded the 1922 prize). Due to the mathematical content of Gullstand's writing, Horatio Burt Williams lamented in 1926 that "there are few ophthalmologists and not many physiologists who are able to read ullstrand's papersand for the same reason that the chemists of Gibbs' day were unable to read his work." Horatio Burt Williams (1927
Mathematics and the Biological Sciences

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society The ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'' is a quarterly mathematical journal published by the American Mathematical Society. Scope It publishes surveys on contemporary research topics, written at a level accessible to non-experts. ...

33(3): 273–94 via

Project Euclid Project Euclid is a collaborative partnership between Cornell University Library and Duke University Press which seeks to advance scholarly communication in theoretical and applied mathematics and statistics through partnerships with independent a ...

, quote from page 278 Gullstrand died in Stockholm in 1930, where he was interred at

Norra begravningsplatsen Norra begravningsplatsen, literally "The Northern Burial Place" in Swedish, is a major cemetery of the Stockholm urban area, located in Solna Municipality. Inaugurated on 9 June 1827, it is the burial site for a number of Swedish notables. Th ...

Works

* 1904: "Zur Kenntnis der Kreispunkte",

Acta Mathematica ''Acta Mathematica'' is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal covering research in all fields of mathematics. According to Cédric Villani, this journal is "considered by many to be the most prestigious of all mathematical research journ ...

29:59–100. * 1906: "Vie réelle optische Abbildung", ''Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar'' 41 * 1908: "Die optische Abbildung im heterogenen Medien und die Dioptrik der Kristal-linse des Menschen", ''Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar'' 43 * 1905: "Über Astigmatismus, Koma und Aberration",

Annalen der Physik ''Annalen der Physik'' (English: ''Annals of Physics'') is one of the oldest scientific journals on physics; it has been published since 1799. The journal publishes original, peer-reviewed papers on experimental, theoretical, applied, and mathem ...

,(4), 18: 941-973 * 1907: "Tatsachen und Fiktionen in der Lehre von der optischen Abbildung", ''Archiv für Optik'', vol.1 p. 2; * 1911
Speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1911
* 1919: "Preparation of non spherical surfaces for optical instruments", ''Kgl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar'', vol. 60: 155, abstracted in ''Zeitschrift für Instrumentenkunde'', vol. 41 (1921), pp. 123–25 * 1922: "Allgemeine Lösung des statischen Einkörperproblems in der Einsteinschen Gravitationstheorie", ''Arkiv för Matematik, Astronomi och Fysik'' 16(8):1–15

References

* including the Nobel Lecture December 11, 1911 ''How I Found the Mechanism of Intracapsular Accommodation'' * Maximilian Herzberger (1960) "Allvar Gullstrand", Journal of Modern Optics 7:237–41. * Ian R. Porteous (2001) ''Geometric Differentiation'', pp 201,205,271,285,

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. * Frank Tsai (2009
Who was Allvar Gullstrand
from ''Pearls in Ophthalmology''.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gullstrand, Allvar 1862 births 1930 deaths People from Landskrona Swedish ophthalmologists Swedish Nobel laureates Opticians Uppsala University alumni Academic staff of Uppsala University Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine 19th-century Swedish physicians 20th-century Swedish physicians Burials at Norra begravningsplatsen Optical physicists

Life

Works

See also

References

External links