Allvar Gullstrand

Allvar Gullstrand ( pronunciation : [ ˌalːvaɹ ˈgɵlːstɹand ], * June 5, 1862 in Landskrona ; † July 28, 1930 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish ophthalmologist and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1911 for his research on dioptrics .

Life

Allvar Gullstrand was born in the southern Swedish port town of Landskrona as the son of the medical officer Pehr Alfred Gullstrand and his wife Sofia. He studied from 1880 to 1888 at Uppsala University , and in 1885 for one year at the University of Vienna . After receiving his doctorate in 1890, he became a lecturer in ophthalmology . From 1894 to 1913 he was the first professor of ophthalmology at Uppsala University. He examined the refractive power of the eye especially in the field of dioptrics . In 1911 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine “for his work on the optical properties of the eye”. In 1914 he was given a personal professorship for physical and physiological optics at Uppsala University, which he held until his retirement in 1927.

Allvar Gullstrand married Signe Christina Breitholtz in 1885. They had a daughter who, however, passed away very early.

In 1904 he became a member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala , in 1905 of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences , in 1917 of the Royal Society of Science and Literature in Gothenburg and in 1924 of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences .

In 1970 a moon crater was named after him.

plant

Allvar Gullstrand was primarily concerned with the optical properties of the eye , an area that he mostly taught himself. He laid the basis of his work in 1890 with a publication on astigmatism (visual disturbance due to an abnormal corneal curvature) and in subsequent publications on other eye defects . His basic work on the optical imaging in the eye and the properties of the lens in the human eye (1900) found particular recognition , further fundamental work on physiological optics followed. These ranged from investigations on paralysis of the eye muscles to corneal refraction to the coloring of the central macula in the retina ( retina ). Most of these publications received high quality awards.

Gullstrand also worked on fundamental physical questions about imaging and light refraction on optical devices and also developed some important devices for ophthalmology .

He also derived Gullstrand's formula:

{\ displaystyle D _ {\ text {ges}} = D_ {1} + D_ {2} - {\ frac {d} {n}} D_ {1} \, D_ {2}}

Here designated

${\ displaystyle D _ {\ text {ges}}}$ the refractive power of the entire eye
${\ displaystyle D_ {1}}$ the refractive index of the cornea
${\ displaystyle D_ {2}}$ the refractive power of the lens
${\ displaystyle d}$ the distance between the cornea and the lens
${\ displaystyle n}$ the refractive index of the aqueous humor between the cornea and the lens

As a member of the Nobel Committee, he was mainly responsible for ensuring that Albert Einstein did not receive the Nobel Prize for the theory of relativity, which Gullstrand rejected. He tried to develop his own theory, and in this context, at about the same time as Paul Painlevé, introduced Gullstrand-Painlevé coordinates for the Schwarzschild solution of general relativity, which was developed early and before the Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates from the mid-1950s demonstrated the unphysical nature of the singularity of the Schwarzschild coordinates on the Schwarzschild radius. Einstein finally received the Nobel Prize for 1921 (awarded in 1922) after the physicist Carl Wilhelm Oseen joined the Nobel Committee and achieved Einstein's award for the photoelectric effect through a clever procedure. He was friends with Gullstrand and linked the award for Einstein, which had been demanded for years by leading physicists, with an award to Niels Bohr .

literature

Werner E. Gerabek : Gullstrand, Allvar. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 518.

Web links

Commons : Allvar Gullstrand - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Literature by and about Allvar Gullstrand in the catalog of the German National Library
Information from the Nobel Foundation on the award ceremony for Alvar Gullstrand in 1911
More detailed information about the eye as an optical system and its calculation (PDF; 174 kB)

Individual evidence

↑ Allvar Gullstrand: Introduction to the methods of the dioptric of the human eye. Leipzig 1911.
^ Allvar Gullstrand in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS
^ Allvar Gullstrand: The general optical imaging system. Stockholm 1915.
↑ Anders Barany The Nobel Prize and Einstein's ghost , 2001
↑ Allvar Gullstrand: General solution of the static one-body problem in Einstein's theory of gravity . Arkiv. Mat. Astron. Fys. 16 (8), 1-15 (1922)

personal data
SURNAME	Gullstrand, Allvar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swedish ophthalmologist, Nobel laureate in medicine 1911
DATE OF BIRTH	June 5, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH	Landskrona
DATE OF DEATH	July 28, 1930
Place of death	Stockholm

[1] Allvar Gullstrand: Introduction to the methods of the dioptric of the human eye. Leipzig 1911.

[2] Allvar Gullstrand in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS

[3] Allvar Gullstrand: The general optical imaging system. Stockholm 1915.

[4] Anders Barany The Nobel Prize and Einstein's ghost , 2001

[5] Allvar Gullstrand: General solution of the static one-body problem in Einstein's theory of gravity . Arkiv. Mat. Astron. Fys. 16 (8), 1-15 (1922)