WALD, GEORGE

WALD, GEORGE
WALD, GEORGE (1906–1997), U.S. biologist and biochemist; Nobel Prize winner. Born in New York City, he received his B.Sc. in 1927 from New York University and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1934, where he developed his continuing interest in the biochemistry of vision. In 1934 he joined the Biological Sciences Department at Harvard University, where he rose to the rank of full professor in 1948. After discovering vitamin A in the retina, he showed that a derivative of this substance (retinene) is the primary lightsensitive pigment. Retinene is joined to specialized retinal proteins (opsins) in the visual pigments which abound in tiny structures of the retina called rods. Upon exposure to light, this attachment is broken as a result of chemical rearrangement of the retinene molecule, and ultimately vitamin A is produced. The significance of this fundamental biochemical cleavage pattern was enhanced by Wald's demonstration that it underlies the visual process in all organisms which possess a highly structured eye. Specific modifications of retinene and vitamin A characterize the lower vertebrates and provide biochemical insights into evolutionary relationships. He was the recipient of many honors and in 1967 was awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine. He wrote a widely acclaimed laboratory manual for general biology and co-authored General Education in a Free Society (1945). He was also active in the political arena and played a leading role in mobilizing opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Current Biography Yearbook, 1968 (1969), 412–4. (George H. Fried)

Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.

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