Selig Hecht
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Selig Hecht | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 8, 1892 |
| Died | September 18, 1947 (aged 55) New York, United States |
| Alma mater | City College of New York Harvard University |
| Known for | Explaining the Atom (1947) |
| Spouse | Celia Huebschmann |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | The physiology of Ascidia atra Lesueur (1917) |
| Doctoral advisor | G. H. Parker[1] |
Selig Hecht (February 8, 1892 – September 18, 1947) was an American professor of biophysics who specialized in the physiology of vision. His scientific papers included studies of photochemistry in photoreceptor cells. At the time of his death, he became known to the general public for having authored Explaining the Atom (1947), which was praised as "a classic of popular scientific writing".[2]
Hecht was born into a Jewish family in Glogau,[1] then in the German Empire (now Głogów, Poland). His parents were Mandel Hecht and Mirel Mresse. The family migrated to the U.S. in 1898, settling in New York City.[3]
In 1913, Hecht received a Bachelor of Science degree from City College of New York.[4] In 1917 he earned a Ph.D. from Harvard. That same year he married Celia Huebschmann. In 1924 their daughter Maressa was born.[1] In 1928, Hecht was appointed professor of biophysics at Columbia University, where he remained until his death.
In addition to his scientific research, Hecht was regarded as an excellent lecturer and expositor of science.[5] The physiologist Maurice Pirenne said of him: "The lack of synthesis discernible in present-day knowledge and teaching perturbed [Hecht], and he took an active interest in all the human implications of science."[5]
Scientific career
Hecht began his study of light sensitivity using clams (Mya arenaria) and insects. His specialty was photochemistry, the kinetics of the reactions initiated by light in the receptors. He made contributions to the knowledge of dark adaptation, visual acuity, brightness discrimination, color vision, and the mechanism of the visual threshold.[6]
He spent time as a postdoctoral researcher in a group led by Edward Charles Cyril Baly at the University of Liverpool. Baly was a pioneer in applying the technique of spectroscopy to chemistry. Hecht extended his mentor's methods by applying spectroscopy to biological problems, which inspired the work of Richard Alan Morton.[7]: 409
Hecht's achievement in showing the protein character of rhodopsin was recognized by historians of protein science:
Identification of visual purple as a protein of high molecular weight ...[came] from the work of Selig Hecht at Columbia University in New York, begun in 1937. Ultracentrifugation was one of methods he used for characterization and this produced an added dividend, demonstrating that the complex absorption of the 'pigment' (suggesting the possibility of many components) segmented in toto with the protein. By this time the carotenoid prosthetic group had been discovered as the source of colour by George Wald and Hecht pointed out that this meant that the protein had to be a conjugated protein, with the chromophore firmly attached.[8]
In 1941, Hecht won the Optical Society of America's Frederic Ives Medal.[1] The following year, the CCNY Alumni Association awarded him its Townsend Harris Medal.[4] In 1944 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.[1]
During World War II, Hecht directed and consulted on a number of visual projects for the Army and Navy. He was co-developer of an adaptometer for night-vision testing that was adopted as standard equipment by several Allied military services.[1]
On September 18, 1947, Selig Hecht died at his home of a coronary thrombosis.[4] He was 55.
