Biology: Biographies

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. A Dictionary of Scientists Further reading

Torsten Nils Wiesel

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

Torsten Nils Wiesel 1924–, Swedish neurobiologist, b. Uppsala, Sweden. After earning a degree in medicine from Karolinska Univ., Stockholm (1954), he took a research position at Johns Hopkins, where he began his work with David Hunter Hubel . The two relocated their research operations to Harvard in 1959. Wiesel and Hubel noted that various forms of visual stimuli are handled by different sections of the brain. Their collaborative work spanned over several decades, leading to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1981 for their important studies of the visual cortex.

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Wiesel, Torsten Nils

A Dictionary of Scientists | 1999 | Copyright

Wiesel, Torsten Nils (1924–) Swedish neurophysiologist Wiesel, who was born at Uppsala in Sweden, obtained his MD from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. He moved to America shortly afterward, working first at Johns Hopkins before moving to Harvard (1959), where he was appointed professor of neurophysiology in 1974. In 1983 he moved to Rockefeller University, New York, where he served as head of the neurobiology laboratory.

Since his arrival in America Wiesel has been engaged upon a most productive investigation with David Hubel, into the mammalian visual system. Their 20-year collaboration led to the formulation of the influential hypercolumn theory. Wiesel and Hubel received the 1981 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for their work, sharing the prize with Roger Sperry. Wiesel has gone on to investigate the chemical transmitters involved in the nerve cells of the visual system.

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