Ragnar Granit life and biography

Ragnar Arthur Granit was a Finnish/Swedish scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1967 along with Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald "for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye".

Granit graduated in 1927 from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Helsinki, Finland. When Finland became the target of a massive Soviet attack in 1940 during the Winter War (1939-1940), Granit sought refuge - and peaceful surroundings for his studies and research work - in the neighbouring capital of Sweden, Stockholm, at the age of 40.

In the same year, 1940, Granit also received Swedish citizenship, which made it possible for him to go on with his work and live without having to worry about the war, which lasted until 1945 in Finland. Granit kept his Finnish citizenship as well, and he remained a patriotic Finn throughout his life. After the Finnish-Russian Wars, Granit kept homes both in Finland and Sweden.

For his research into the internal electrical impulses that take place as the eye processes vision, Ragnar Granit was awarded the 1967 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. The honor was shared with Haldan K. Hartline and George Wald.

Author of books:
-Sensory Mechanisms of the Retina (1947)
-The Purposive Brain (1977)
-Hur det Kom Sig: Forskarminnen och Motiveringar (1983)

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