Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and the most populous urban area in the Nordic countries. The city stretches across fourteen islands. Just outside the city and along the coast is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago; the area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, was founded as a city in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. It is the capital of Stockholm County. Stockholm is the cultural, media and economic centre of Sweden; the Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the country's GDP, is among the top 10 regions in Europe by GDP per capita. It is an important global city, the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region; the city is home to some of Europe's top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and Royal Institute of Technology. It hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the city's most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited non-art museum in Scandinavia.
The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is well known for the decor of its stations. Sweden's national football arena is located north of the city centre, in Solna. Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city; the city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister; the government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, the Prime Minister's residence is adjacent at Sager House. Stockholm Palace is the official residence and principal workplace of the Swedish monarch, while Drottningholm Palace, a World Heritage Site on the outskirts of Stockholm, serves as the Royal Family's private residence. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BC, there were many people living in what is today the Stockholm area, but as temperatures dropped, inhabitants moved south.
Thousands of years as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable and the lands became fertile, people began to migrate back to the North. At the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings, they had a positive trade impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholm's location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne; the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may be connected to an old German word meaning fortification; the second part of the name means islet, is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. According to Eric Chronicles the city is said to have been founded by Birger Jarl to protect Sweden from sea invasions made by Karelians after the pillage of Sigtuna on Lake Mälaren in the summer of 1187.
Stockholm's core, the present Old Town was built on the central island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid-13th century onward. The city rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League. Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Gdańsk, Visby and Riga during this time. Between 1296 and 1478 Stockholm's City Council was made up of 24 members, half of whom were selected from the town's German-speaking burghers; the strategic and economic importance of the city made Stockholm an important factor in relations between the Danish Kings of the Kalmar Union and the national independence movement in the 15th century. The Danish King Christian II was able to enter the city in 1520. On 8 November 1520 a massacre of opposition figures called the Stockholm Bloodbath took place and set off further uprisings that led to the breakup of the Kalmar Union. With the accession of Gustav Vasa in 1523 and the establishment of a royal power, the population of Stockholm began to grow, reaching 10,000 by 1600.
The 17th century saw Sweden grow into a major European power, reflected in the development of the city of Stockholm. From 1610 to 1680 the population multiplied sixfold. In 1634, Stockholm became the official capital of the Swedish empire. Trading rules were created that gave Stockholm an essential monopoly over trade between foreign merchants and other Swedish and Scandinavian territories. In 1697, Tre Kronor was replaced by Stockholm Palace. In 1710, a plague killed about 20,000 of the population. After the end of the Great Northern War the city stagnated. Population growth halted and economic growth slowed; the city was in shock after having lost its place as the capital of a Great power. However, Stockholm maintained its role as the political centre of Sweden and continued to develop culturally under Gustav III. By the second half of the 19th century, Stockholm had regained its leading economic role. New industries emerged and Stockholm was transformed into an important trade and service centre as well as a key gateway point within Sweden.
The population grew during this time through immigration. At the end
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed between 1917 as an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the King of Sweden, it became autonomous after the Russian annexation in the Finnish War; the Grand Duke of Finland was the Romanov Emperor of Russia, represented by the Governor-General. Due to the governmental structure of the Russian Empire and Finnish initiative, the grand duchy's autonomy expanded until the end of the 19th century; the Senate of Finland was founded in 1809, which became the most important governmental organ and the precursor to the modern Government of Finland, Supreme Court of Finland and the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland. The economic and political changes in the Grand Duchy of Finland were connected with those in the Russian Empire and the rest of Europe; the economy grew during the first half of the 19th century. The reign of Alexander II after 1855 saw significant cultural and intellectual progress and an industrializing economy.
Tensions increased after the Russification policies were enacted in 1889, which saw the introduction of limited autonomy and reduction of Finnish cultural expression. The unrest in Russia and Finland during World War I and the subsequent collapse of the Russian Empire resulted in the Finnish Declaration of Independence and the end of the Grand Duchy. An extended Southwest Finland was made a titular grand duchy in 1581, when King Johan III of Sweden, who as a prince had been the Duke of Finland, extended the list of subsidiary titles of the Kings of Sweden considerably; the new title Grand Duke of Finland did not result in any Finnish autonomy, as Finland was an integrated part of the Kingdom of Sweden with full parliamentary representation for its counties. During the next two centuries, the title was used by some of Johan's successors on the throne, but not all, it was just a subsidiary title of the King, used only on formal occasions. However, in 1802, as an indication of his resolve to keep Finland within Sweden in the face of increased Russian pressure, King Gustav IV Adolf gave the title to his new-born son, Prince Carl Gustaf, who died three years later.
During the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, the four Estates of occupied Finland were assembled at the Diet of Porvoo on 29 March 1809 to pledge allegiance to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, who in return guaranteed that the area's laws and liberties as well as religion would be left unchanged. Following the Swedish defeat in the war and the signing of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on 17 September 1809, Finland became a true autonomous grand duchy within the autocratic Russian Empire; the title "Grand Duke of Finland" was added to the long list of titles of the Russian Tsar. After his return to Finland in 1812, the Finnish-born Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt became counsellor to the Russian emperor. Armfelt was instrumental in securing the Grand Duchy as an entity with greater autonomy within the Russian realm, restoring the so-called Old Finland, lost to Russia in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721; the formation of the Grand Duchy stems from the Treaty of Tilsit between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon Bonaparte of France.
The treaty mediated peace between Russia and France and allied the two countries against Napoleon's remaining threats: Great Britain and Sweden. Russia invaded Finland in February 1808, claimed as an effort to impose military sanctions against Sweden, but not a war of conquest, that Russia decided to only temporarily control Finland. Collectively, the Finnish were predominately Anti-Russian, Finnish guerillas and peasant uprisings were a large obstacles for the Russians, forcing Russia to use various tactics to quash armed Finnish rebellion. Thus, in the beginning of the war, General Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden, with permission of the Tsar, issued an oath of fealty on Finland, in which Russia would honor Finland's Lutheran faith, the Finnish Diet, the Finnish estates as long as the Finns would remain loyal to the Russian crown; the oath dubbed anyone person who gave aid to the Swedish or Finnish armies a rebel. The Finns complied, bitter over Sweden abandoning the country for their war against Denmark and France, begrudgingly embraced Russian conquest.
The Diet of Finland was now to only meet whenever requested, was never mentioned in the manifesto published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Further on, Alexander I requested a deputation of the four Finnish estates, as he expressed concern over continued Finnish resistance; the deputation refused to act without the Diet, to which Alexander agreed with, promised the Diet would shortly be summoned. By 1809, all of Finland had been conquered and The Diet was summoned in March. Finland was united through Russia via crown, Finland was able to keep the majority of its own laws, giving it autonomy; the earlier years of the Grand Duchy can be seen as uneventful. In 1812, the area of Old Finland, known as the Viipuri Province was returned to Finland after being annexed by Russia in the Great Northern War and the Russo-Swedish War; this surprising action by the Tsar was met with anger from certain parts of the Russian government and aristocracy, who wished to either return to the previous border or annex the communities west of St. Petersburg.
Despite the outcry, the borders remained set until 1940. The gesture can b
Haldan Keffer Hartline
Haldan Keffer Hartline was an American physiologist, a co-recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in analyzing the neurophysiological mechanisms of vision. Hartline received his undergraduate education from Lafayette College in Easton, graduating in 1923, he began his study of retinal electrophysiology as a National Research Council Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, receiving his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1927. After attending the universities of Leipzig and Munich as an Eldridge Johnson traveling research scholar from the University of Pennsylvania, he returned to the US to take a position in the Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation for Medical Physics at Penn, under the directorship of Detlev W. Bronk at that time. In 1940–1941, he was Associate Professor of Physiology at Cornell Medical College in New York City, but returned to Penn and stayed until 1949, he became professor of biophysics and chairman of the department at Johns Hopkins in 1949. One of Hartline's graduate students at Johns Hopkins, Paul Greengard, who won the Nobel Prize.
Hartline joined the staff of Rockefeller University, New York City, in 1953 as professor of neurophysiology. Hartline investigated the electrical responses of the retinas of certain arthropods and mollusks, because their visual systems are much simpler than those of humans and thus easier to study, he concentrated his studies on the eye of the horseshoe crab. Using minute electrodes, he obtained the first record of the electrical impulses sent by a single optic nerve fibre when the receptors connected to it are stimulated by light, he found that the photoreceptor cells in the eye are interconnected in such a way that when one is stimulated, others nearby are depressed, thus enhancing the contrast in light patterns and sharpening the perception of shapes. Hartline thus built up a detailed understanding of the workings of individual photoreceptors and nerve fibres in the retina, he showed how simple retinal mechanisms constitute vital steps in the integration of visual information. Hartline was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1966.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1967
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, has a population of 650,058; the city's urban area has a population of 1,268,296, making it by far the most populous urban area in Finland as well as the country's most important center for politics, finance and research. Helsinki is located 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia, 400 km east of Stockholm, 390 km west of Saint Petersburg, Russia, it has close historical ties with these three cities. Together with the cities of Espoo and Kauniainen, surrounding commuter towns, Helsinki forms the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, which has a population of nearly 1.5 million. Considered to be Finland's only metropolis, it is the world's northernmost metro area with over one million people as well as the northernmost capital of an EU member state. After Stockholm and Oslo, Helsinki is the third largest municipality in the Nordic countries.
The city is served by the international Helsinki Airport, located in the neighboring city of Vantaa, with frequent service to many destinations in Europe and Asia. Helsinki was the World Design Capital for 2012, the venue for the 1952 Summer Olympics, the host of the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest. Helsinki has one of the highest urban standards of living in the world. In 2011, the British magazine Monocle ranked Helsinki the world's most liveable city in its liveable cities index. In the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2016 liveability survey, Helsinki was ranked ninth among 140 cities. According to a theory presented in the 1630s, settlers from Hälsingland in central Sweden had arrived to what is now known as the Vantaa River and called it Helsingå, which gave rise to the names of Helsinge village and church in the 1300s; this theory is questionable, because dialect research suggests that the settlers arrived from Uppland and nearby areas. Others have proposed the name as having been derived from the Swedish word helsing, an archaic form of the word hals, referring to the narrowest part of a river, the rapids.
Other Scandinavian cities at similar geographic locations were given similar names at the time, e.g. Helsingør in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden; when a town was founded in Forsby village in 1548, it was named Helsinge fors, "Helsinge rapids". The name refers to the Vanhankaupunginkoski rapids at the mouth of the river; the town was known as Helsinge or Helsing, from which the contemporary Finnish name arose. Official Finnish Government documents and Finnish language newspapers have used the name Helsinki since 1819, when the Senate of Finland moved itself into the city from Turku; the decrees issued in Helsinki were dated with Helsinki as the place of issue. This is; as part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire, Helsinki was known as Gelsingfors in Russian. In Helsinki slang, the city is called Stadi. Hesa, is not used by natives of the city. Helsset is the Northern Sami name of Helsinki. In the Iron Age the area occupied by present day Helsinki was inhabited by Tavastians, they used the area for fishing and hunting, but due to a lack of archeological finds it is difficult to say how extensive their settlements were.
Pollen analysis has shown that there were cultivating settlements in the area in the 10th century and surviving historical records from the 14th century describe Tavastian settlements in the area. Swedes colonized the coastline of the Helsinki region in the late 13th century after the successful Second Crusade to Finland, which led to the defeat of the Tavastians. Helsinki was established as a trading town by King Gustav I of Sweden in 1550 as the town of Helsingfors, which he intended to be a rival to the Hanseatic city of Reval. In order to populate his newly founded town, the King issued an order to resettle the bourgeoisie of Porvoo, Ekenäs, Rauma and Ulvila into the town. Little came of the plans as Helsinki remained a tiny town plagued by poverty and diseases; the plague of 1710 killed the greater part of the inhabitants of Helsinki. The construction of the naval fortress Sveaborg in the 18th century helped improve Helsinki's status, but it was not until Russia defeated Sweden in the Finnish War and annexed Finland as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 that the town began to develop into a substantial city.
Russians besieged the Sveaborg fortress during the war, about one quarter of the town was destroyed in an 1808 fire. Russian Emperor Alexander I of Russia moved the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki in 1812 to reduce Swedish influence in Finland, to bring the capital closer to Saint Petersburg. Following the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, the Royal Academy of Turku, which at the time was the country's only university, was relocated to Helsinki and became the modern University of Helsinki; the move helped set it on a path of continuous growth. This transformation is apparent in the downtown core, rebuilt in the neoclassical style to resemble Saint Petersburg to a plan by the German-born architect C. L. Engel; as elsewhere, technological advancements such as railroads and industrialization were key factors behind the city's growth. Despite the tumultuous nature of Finnish history during the first half of the 20th century, Helsinki continued its steady development. A landmark e
Scientist
A scientist is someone who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of interest. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophical study of nature called natural philosophy, a precursor of natural science, it was not until the 19th century that the term scientist came into regular use after it was coined by the theologian and historian of science William Whewell in 1833. The term'scientist' was first coined by him for Mary Somerville because the term "man of science", more custom at that time, was inappropriate here. In modern times, many scientists have advanced degrees in an area of science and pursue careers in various sectors of the economy such as academia, industry and nonprofit environments; the roles of "scientists", their predecessors before the emergence of modern scientific disciplines, have evolved over time. Scientists of different eras have had different places in society, the social norms, ethical values, epistemic virtues associated with scientists—and expected of them—have changed over time as well.
Accordingly, many different historical figures can be identified as early scientists, depending on which characteristics of modern science are taken to be essential. Some historians point to the Scientific Revolution that began in 16th century as the period when science in a recognizably modern form developed, it wasn't until the 19th century that sufficient socioeconomic changes occurred for scientists to emerge as a major profession. Knowledge about nature in classical antiquity was pursued by many kinds of scholars. Greek contributions to science—including works of geometry and mathematical astronomy, early accounts of biological processes and catalogs of plants and animals, theories of knowledge and learning—were produced by philosophers and physicians, as well as practitioners of various trades; these roles, their associations with scientific knowledge, spread with the Roman Empire and, with the spread of Christianity, became linked to religious institutions in most of European countries.
Astrology and astronomy became an important area of knowledge, the role of astronomer/astrologer developed with the support of political and religious patronage. By the time of the medieval university system, knowledge was divided into the trivium—philosophy, including natural philosophy—and the quadrivium—mathematics, including astronomy. Hence, the medieval analogs of scientists were either philosophers or mathematicians. Knowledge of plants and animals was broadly the province of physicians. Science in medieval Islam generated some new modes of developing natural knowledge, although still within the bounds of existing social roles such as philosopher and mathematician. Many proto-scientists from the Islamic Golden Age are considered polymaths, in part because of the lack of anything corresponding to modern scientific disciplines. Many of these early polymaths were religious priests and theologians: for example, Alhazen and al-Biruni were mutakallimiin. During the Italian Renaissance scientists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo Galilei and Gerolamo Cardano have been considered as the most recognizable polymaths.
During the Renaissance, Italians made substantial contributions in science. Leonardo Da Vinci made significant discoveries in anatomy; the Father of modern Science,Galileo Galilei, made key improvements on the thermometer and telescope which allowed him to observe and describe the solar system. Descartes was not only a pioneer of analytic geometry but formulated a theory of mechanics and advanced ideas about the origins of animal movement and perception. Vision interested the physicists Young and Helmholtz, who studied optics and music. Newton extended Descartes' mathematics by inventing calculus, he investigated light and optics. Fourier founded a new branch of mathematics — infinite, periodic series — studied heat flow and infrared radiation, discovered the greenhouse effect. Girolamo Cardano, Blaise Pascal Pierre de Fermat, Von Neumann, Khinchin and Wiener, all mathematicians, made major contributions to science and probability theory, including the ideas behind computers, some of the foundations of statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics.
Many mathematically inclined scientists, including Galileo, were musicians. There are many compelling stories in medicine and biology, such as the development of ideas about the circulation of blood from Galen to Harvey. During the age of Enlightenment, Luigi Galvani, the pioneer of the bioelectromagnetics, discovered the animal electricity, he discovered that a charge applied to the spinal cord of a frog could generate muscular spasms throughout its body. Charges could make frog legs jump if the legs were no longer attached to a frog. While cutting a frog leg, Galvani's steel scalpel touched a brass hook, holding the leg in place; the leg twitched. Further experiments confirmed this effect, Galvani was convinced that he was seeing the effects of what he called animal electricity, the life force within the muscles of the frog. At the University of Pavia, Galvani's colleague Alessandro Volta was able to reproduce the results, but was sceptical o
Swedish nationality law
Swedish nationality law determines entitlement to Swedish citizenship. Citizenship of Sweden is based on the principle of jus sanguinis. In other words, citizenship is conferred by birth to a Swedish parent, irrespective of place of birth. In general, children born in Sweden to foreign parents do not acquire Swedish citizenship at birth, although if they remain resident in Sweden they may become Swedish on. Swedish law was amended with effect from 1 July 2001 and from that date, dual citizenship is permitted without restriction. A child born after 1 April 2015 acquires Swedish citizenship automatically if: one of the parents is a Swedish citizen at the time of the child's birth a deceased parent of the child was a Swedish citizen upon their deathA child born before 1 April 2015 acquired Swedish citizenship at birth if: the child's father was a Swedish citizen and was married to the child's mother. For example, a child born to a Swedish father and a non-Swedish mother will not be Swedish if either: its parents are not married to each other or if they were not married when it was conceived and it was born outside of Sweden, unless the father sends notification to an embassy or consulate with the child's passport, birth certificate, proof of his own citizenship at the time of the birth, a certificate of paternity.
A child, born abroad and whose father is a Swedish citizen will acquire Swedish citizenship when the parents get married, provided the child is aged under 18. The law that governed the transmission of citizenship before the Citizenship Act of 2001 was the Citizenship Act of 1894, with intervening reforms in 1924, 1950, 1979. A child, aged under 12 and, adopted by a Swedish citizen automatically receives Swedish citizenship upon adoption if the child has been adopted as the result of a decision taken in Sweden or in another Nordic Council country the child has been adopted as the result of a decision taken abroad and approved in Sweden by the Swedish Intercountry Adoptions Authority the adoption is valid under Swedish law; the adoption must have been decided or approved after 30 June 1992. A child aged 12 or more at the time of adoption may acquire Swedish citizenship by application. Swedish citizenship can be acquired by naturalization known as citizenship by application. A foreigner may be granted Swedish citizenship upon meeting certain requirements, including: holding a permanent residence permit, unless a citizen of a Nordic Council country.
For citizens of European Economic Area nations, a right of residence or limited residence permits for five years equate to a permanent residence permit. A number of exemptions apply to the residence period: the residence period is reduced to 4 years for recognised refugees and stateless persons. Citizens of other Nordic Council countries are only required to have two years' residence in Sweden. Former Swedish citizens those employed on Swedish ships persons employed abroad by Swedish corporations a person with previous long residence in SwedenFor those married to, living in a registered partnership with or cohabiting with a Swedish citizen, they can apply for Swedish citizenship after three years. In these cases, they must have been living together for the past two years, it is not enough to be married to one another, they must live together. Sweden imposes no requirements on Swedish language abilities or knowledge about Swedish history or culture, the only other countries in Europe without these requirements are Belgium and Ireland.
Notification is a simpler method of acquiring Swedish citizenship. Those not eligible for notification may still be eligible for naturalisation by application. Categories of persons eligible for citizenship by notification include: A stateless person may acquire Swedish citizenship by notification if that person has a permanent resident permit and falls into one of the following categories: born in Sweden and aged less than five. Swedish citizenship may be acquired by notification by young persons who hold a permanent resident permit in the following cases: aged under 18 and resident in Sweden for three years aged 18 or 19, where the person has been resident in Sweden since turning 15. Former Swedish citizens who hold permanent resident permits may acquire Swedish citizenship by notification if the following conditions are fulfilled: aged 18 or over resident in Sweden for 10 years preceding age 18. Resident in Sweden for the 2 years preceding the applicationThose former Swedish citizens who are citizens of other Nordic countries may acquire Swedish citizenship by notification upon resuming residence in Sweden.
Citizens of other Nordic Council countries may be eligible for Swedish citizenship by notification in the following cases: aged 18 or over the other Nordic citizenship has been acquired other than by naturalisation 2 years' residence in Sweden And a person who has lived in Sweden for 5 years, who can speak and write Swedish, can be qualified to obtain citizenship provided there is no criminal history. Although dual citizenship is permitted, a Swedish citizen, born outside Sweden and is a citizen of another country will lose Swedish citizenship at age 22 unless he or she is granted approval to retain Swedish citizenship between ages 18-21. However, approval is not required if: the person has been domiciled in Sw
George Wald
George Wald was an American scientist who studied pigments in the retina. He won a share of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Haldan Keffer Hartline and Ragnar Granit; as a postdoctoral researcher, Wald discovered. His further experiments showed that when the pigment rhodopsin was exposed to light, it yielded the protein opsin and a compound containing vitamin A; this suggested. In the 1950s, Wald and his colleagues used chemical methods to extract pigments from the retina. Using a spectrophotometer, they were able to measure the light absorbance of the pigments. Since the absorbance of light by retina pigments corresponds to the wavelengths that best activate photoreceptor cells, this experiment showed the wavelengths that the eye could best detect. However, since rod cells make up most of the retina, what Wald and his colleagues were measuring was the absorbance of rhodopsin, the main photopigment in rods. With a technique called microspectrophotometry, he was able to measure the absorbance directly from cells, rather than from an extract of the pigments.
This allowed Wald to determine the absorbance of pigments in the cone cells. George Wald was born in New York City, the son of Ernestine and Isaac Wald, Jewish immigrant parents, he was a member of the first graduating class of the Brooklyn Technical High School in New York in 1922. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from New York University in 1927 and his PhD in zoology from Columbia University in 1932. After graduating, he received a travel grant from the US National Research Council. Wald used this grant to work in Germany with Otto Heinrich Warburg where he identified vitamin A in the retina. Wald went on to work in Zurich, Switzerland with the discoverer of vitamin A, Paul Karrer. Wald worked with Otto Fritz Meyerhof in Heidelberg, but left Europe for the University of Chicago in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power and life in Europe became more dangerous for Jews. In 1934, Wald went to Harvard University where he became an instructor a professor, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1950 and in 1967 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries in vision.
In 1966 he was awarded the Frederic Ives Medal by the OSA and in 1967 the Paul Karrer Gold Medal of the University of Zurich. Wald spoke out on many political and social issues and his fame as a Nobel laureate brought national and international attention to his views, he was a vocal opponent of the nuclear arms race. Speaking at MIT in 1969 Wald bemoaned that "Our government has become preoccupied with death, with the business of killing and being killed." In 1980, Wald served as part of Ramsey Clark's delegation to Iran during the Iran hostage crisis. With a small number of other Nobel laureates, he was invited in 1986 to fly to Moscow to advise Mikhail Gorbachev on a number of environmental questions. While there, he questioned Gorbachev about the arrest and exile to Gorki of Yelena Bonner and her husband, fellow Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov. Wald reported. Bonner and Sakharov were released shortly thereafter, in December 1986. Wald died in Massachusetts, he was married twice: in 1931 in 1958 to the biochemist Ruth Hubbard.
He had two sons with Kingsley -- David. He was an atheist. List of Jewish Nobel laureates Retinal Nobel Prize Biography John E. Dowling, "George Wald, 1906–1997: A Biographical Memoir" in Biographical Memoirs, Washington, D. C.: The National Academy Press, Volume 78, 298:317. A remembrance by his son Elijah Papers of George Wald: an inventoryTwo of George Wald's speeches can be read on-line: A Generation in Search of a Future The Origin of Death
