Lectures and seminars Nobel Prizes that opened our eyes: from light in the eye to vision in the brain
How do historic Nobel Prizes influence today’s eye care and vision research? Researchers from St Erik Eye Hospital and Karolinska Institutet talk about award-winning discoveries about the eye and vision – and what they mean for your future eye health.
How are the Nobel Prize, your eye examination, and today’s treatment of eye diseases connected? In a series of three short seminars, researchers from St Erik Eye Hospital and Karolinska Institutet will talk about Nobel Prizes that transformed vision research: from Allvar Gullstrand’s work on the refraction of light in the eye and the development of instruments such as the slit lamp, to Ragnar Granit and his colleagues’ mapping of the retina and colour vision, and Torsten Wiesel’s and David Hubel’s discoveries about how the brain interprets visual impressions.
Over 90 minutes, we alternate between historical highlights and current research into eye diseases, diagnosis, and treatment. You will gain insight into how Nobel Prize-winning discoveries laid the foundations for modern ophthalmic care and ongoing research at St Erik Eye Hospital and Karolinska Institutet.
The seminar concludes with a Q&A session where you can ask the researchers questions, test your own ideas, and explore in greater depth how knowledge about vision can improve everyday life for people with eye diseases.
The seminar is organised by Stockholm Science City Foundation and St Erik Eye Hospital as part of Eye Week 2026.
Places are limited. Please register by 1 October.
Be sure to visit the photo exhibition featuring current researchers and their work in the main entrance of St Erik Eye Hospital.
Participants:
- Tony Pansell, professor and optometrist
- Abinaya Priya Venkataraman, associate professor
- Maria Nilsson, associate professor and optometrist
- Filippo Locri, research specialist