Selig Hecht (1892-1947),Austrian-born US physiologist. Hecht obtained his doctorate at Harvard in 1917. His early research was at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole,Massachusetts,USA. He studied light sensitivity,photochemistry and the physiology of vision and the rod cells of the retina. He was appointed professor of biophysics at Columbia University,New York,from 1928 to his death. Hecht,a renowned lecturer,wrote 'Explaining the Atom' (1947),on the subject of atomic weapons and energy. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1944) he was awarded the Frederick Ives Medal (1941) of the Optical Society of America |