Allvar Gullstrand: The Only Ophthalmologist Who Won the Nobel Prize

Allvar Gullstrand, the Swedish ophthalmologist and Nobel laureate, was a self-taught mathematician who applied mathematics and higher-order equations to understand the optic system. His inventions, the slit lamp, and the ophthalmoscope are used in clinical practice for the diagnosis of eye diseases. With his efforts, he explained the accommodation, the process of changing the shape of the lens to focus on near or distant objects. In 1911, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In 1913, he was elected as the first president of the Swedish Ophthalmological Society. In 1927, he was awarded the Graefe Medal of the Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft.