George Wald

George Wald
George Wald in 1987
Born
George Wald

(1906-11-18)November 18, 1906
New York, New York, U.S.
DiedApril 12, 1997(1997-04-12) (aged 90)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materNew York University
Columbia University
Known forPigments in the retina
Vertebrate visual opsin
Wald's visual cycle
Spouses
  • Frances Kingsley (m. 1931; div. ?) (1906–1980)
​
(m. 1958)​
(1924–2016)
Children4
AwardsEli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry (1939)
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1953)
Rumford Prize (1959)
Guggenheim Fellowship (1963)
Frederic Ives Medal (1966)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1967)
Massey Lecture (1970)
Scientific career
FieldsNeurobiology
InstitutionsHarvard University
University of Chicago

George Wald (November 18, 1906 – April 12, 1997) was an American scientist and activist 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.[1]

In 1970, Wald predicted that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”[2][3][4]

  1. ^ The Nobel Foundation. "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1967". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
  2. ^ Walter E. Williams (2015). American Contempt for Liberty. Hoover Institution Press. p. 374. ISBN 978-0817918750. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
  3. ^ Mark J. Perry (April 21, 2015) 18 spectacularly wrong apocalyptic predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, expect more this year. aei.org
  4. ^ "The End of Civilization Feared by Biochemist". The New York Times. November 19, 1970. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 24, 2022.