2000, Number 1
Allvar Gullstrand: Surgeon, physicist and Nobel Prize recipient
Martínez MG, Toledo-Pereyra LH
Language: Spanish
References: 12
Page: 26-31
PDF size: 259.98 Kb.
ABSTRACT
Allvar Gullstrand was born in Sweden on June 5, 1862. He began his studies at his native Landskrona, then matriculated at the University of Uppsala School of Medicine and graduated from the University of Stockholm in 1888. In 1891, he was appointed professor of ophthalmology at the Karolinska Institute and named chairman of ophthalmology at his Alma Mater, the University of Uppsala, in 1894 for the next 19 years. He retired from clinical ophthalmology in 1914 to continue his research on optical instruments as Professor of Physiological Optics at the same university. Gullstrand contributed extensively to clinical and surgical ophthalmology. In his theories and investigations, he devised the slit lamp and the reflex-free ophthalmoscope, and introduced a surgical technique for the treatment of symblepharon and redefined the theory of accommodation. He was an honorary member of a great number of ophthalmologic societies, Doctor Honoris Causa in different universities, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1911 for his work on the dioptrics of the eye. Gullstrand has been the only individual that has declined and accepted a Nobel Prize during the same year. In addition to being a clinical ophthalmologist, he was a brilliant administrator and researcher. He died on July 28, 1930, leaving as his legacy easy-to-use instruments for accurate ophthalmologic diagnosis and fine eye physical examination.REFERENCES