ALLVAR GULLSTRAND. The only ophthalmologist to win a Nobel Prize

 

Since awarding the first Nobel Prize in 1901, the only practicing ophthalmologist to be conferred this honor has been Allvar Gullstrand. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1911. 

Gullstrand applied principles of physical mathematics to the study of optical images and the refraction of light in the eye, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. While conferring the award, King Gustav V of Sweden announced that Gullstrand was being awarded for his works concerning the dioptrics of the eye. An interesting anecdote regarding his Nobel Prize is that he is one of the few people to decline this prestigious honor. He was also being considered for the Nobel Prize in Physics; however, he rejected that award in favor of the award in Physiology or Medicine.

Gullstrand is credited with many seminal achievements, the most significant being the invention of the slitlamp. He combined a slit with a microscope made by the Zeiss Optical Works in Germany, creating the instrument that is used by all ophthalmologists today. Reacting to the development, the President of the International Congress of Ophthalmology held in Washington, DC, in 1922, De Schweinitz jokingly said, that medicine now has a "gentleman with the lamp," a male counterpart to nursing's Florence Nightingale, the lady with the lamp.

He also invented the reflex-less ophthalmoscope which avoided the light reflexes usually occurring from the cornea when using the ophthalmoscope.

Gullstrand also made the eponymous schematic eye that includes the lens curvature, the distance between the lens and the cornea, and the refractive indexes of all components (Gullstrand schematic eye).

Gullstrand was born on 5th June 1862, in Landskrona, Sweden. He completed a study of mathematics at Jonkoping in 1880 and then started studying Medicine in Uppsala. Initially, he had considered studying engineering, but his physician father persuaded him to study medicine by hiring him as a medical assistant for the summer. In 1885, Gullstrand left for Vienna to learn ophthalmoscopy, otoscopy, and laryngoscopy. After a year in Vienna, he returned to continue his medical studies in Stockholm, where he graduated in 1888. His thesis was titled ‘A Contribution to the Theory of Astigmatism’, laying the foundation for his future work.

In 1891, Gullstrand became a lecturer of ophthalmology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Gullstrand was a professor at the University of Uppsala from 1894 to 1927. He was part of the Nobel Committee for Physics from 1911 to 1929, serving as chairman from 1923 to 1929. In 1913, he was elected the first president of the Swedish Ophthalmological Society.

In 1885, he married Signe Christine Breitholtz, with whom he had a daughter, Esther Gisela. However, the girl died from diphtheria when she was less than 3 years old.

While serving on the Nobel Committee, Gullstrand wrote two harsh opinions against Einstein’s theory of relativity. As a result, Einstein was denied the Nobel Prize in 1921 and 1922 for his Theory of Relativity. It was only in 1921 that Einstein got the award for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.

Apart from the Nobel Prize, Gullstrand received the prestigious Graefe Medal of the Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft in 1927.

Gullstrand died in 1930 following a cerebral hemorrhage.