Gordon Lynn Walls (April 4, 1905 – August 22, 1962) was an American professor of

physiological optics Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical an ...

and

optometry Optometry is a specialized health care profession that involves examining the eyes and related structures for defects or abnormalities. Optometrists are health care professionals who typically provide comprehensive primary eye care. In the Uni ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Biography

Walls started his education at Boston English High School. He earned his B.S. as a mechanical engineer in 1926 at Tufts College. In addition he was an undergraduate in biology and was awarded both the Goddard Prize and the Olmsted Scholarship in Biology. Walls decided not to pursue his career in engineering. Instead he entered

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

on a graduate scholarship. His first studies dealt with photomechanical changes in the retina, laying the fundaments of his career in

vision Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain un ...

. He continued his study of the

retina The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then ...

as a graduate student (Sc.D. in

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

, 1931) and postdoctoral fellow (1931 to 1934, Alfred G. Lloyd and National Research Council Fellowships) at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and as an associate in zoology at the

State University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

from 1934 to 1937. His interest in vision was confirmed during a four-year research associateship in

ophthalmology Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...

at Wayne University College of Medicine and culminated with the publication in 1942 of his book ''The Vertebrate Eye and its Adaptive Radiation''. This 785-page classic contains about 200 illustrations, many of which Gordon Walls drew himself. In 1946 he joined the Faculty of the School of Optometry at the University of California. He came to Berkeley as an associate professor of physiological optics and optometry and lecturer in physiology. He also taught courses in morphology and physiology of the eye, physiological optics, evolution of the visual system, and color vision. He was appointed professor in 1952. Walls died in 1962 by a heart attack.Calisphere University of California, Berkeley
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Scientific contributions

In 1942 Walls published ''The Vertebrate Eye and its Adaptive Radiation'' a classic on eye physiology and evolution. In this book Walls described a diversity of

rod cell Rod cells are photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye that can function in lower light better than the other type of visual photoreceptor, cone cells. Rods are usually found concentrated at the outer edges of the retina and are used in per ...

s and

cone cell Cone cells, or cones, are photoreceptor cells in the retinas of vertebrate eyes including the human eye. They respond differently to light of different wavelengths, and the combination of their responses is responsible for color vision. Cone ...

s in the animal world. He detected the communalities of

photoreceptor cell A photoreceptor cell is a specialized type of neuroepithelial cell found in the retina that is capable of visual phototransduction. The great biological importance of photoreceptors is that they convert light (visible electromagnetic radiatio ...

s in the vertebrate eye and was first in describing the cone cell as a specialized cell, obviously evolved from an early rod cell. He described the

nocturnal bottleneck The nocturnal bottleneck hypothesis is a hypothesis to explain several mammalian traits. In 1942, Gordon Lynn Walls described this concept which states that placental mammals were mainly or even exclusively nocturnal through most of their evolu ...

hypothesis which states that placental mammals were mainly or even exclusively nocturnal through most of their evolutionary story, starting with their origin 225 million years ago, and only ending with the demise of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.Gerkema MP, Davies WI, Foster RG, Menaker M, Hut RA. The nocturnal bottleneck and the evolution of activity patterns in mammals. Proc Biol Sci. 2013 Jul 3;280(1765):20130508. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0508 In 1958 Walls wrote a chapter in ''The eye in evolution'', the first volume (780 pages) of

Stewart Duke-Elder Sir William Stewart Duke-Elder (22 April 1898 – 27 March 1978), a Scottish ophthalmologist who was a dominant force in his field for more than a quarter of a century. Life Duke-Elder was born in the manse in Tealing near Dundee. His f ...

's work ''System of Ophthalmology'', a monumental multivolume contribution to medical literature.Stewart Duke Elder. ''System of Ophthalmology''. Vol. I: The Eye in Evolution. St. Louis, Mosby. 1958. Online
System of Ophthalmology
System of Ophthalmology In all, he published more than sixty journal papers and monographs, one book, and chapters to three other books.

Simon Ings Simon Ings is an English novelist and science writer living in London. He was born in July 1965 in Horndean and educated at Churcher's College, Petersfield and at King's College London and Birkbeck, University of London, Birkbeck College, London. ...

''The Eye - A Natural History'', Bloomsbury, 2007

References

External links

A typical vertebrate eyeThe Vertebrate Eye and its Adaptive Radiation by Gordon Walls (on Openlibrary.org)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walls, Gordon 1905 births 1962 deaths American optometrists University of California faculty University of Michigan alumni Harvard University alumni American biologists Tufts University School of Engineering alumni 20th-century biologists