Elwin Marg

Elwin Marg (March 23, 1918 – July 15, 2010) was an American optometrist and neuroscientist at the University of California at Berkeley. He was the first to receive a PhD from UC Berkeley School of Optometry. It was he who gave the name electrooculogram, a technique for measurement of nerve impulse in the eye.[1]

Elwin Marg
Born(1918-03-23)March 23, 1918
Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S.
DiedJuly 15, 2010(2010-07-15) (aged 92)
Berkeley, California, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of California at Berkeley
Known forElectrooculogram
Mackay-Marg Tonometer
Minerva Foundation
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience
Optometry
InstitutionsUniversity of California at Berkeley

He developed an improved tonometer that avoided use of anaesthetics for the first time in optometrical diagnosis. With his wife he established a non-profit neuroscience organisation, the Minerva Foundation in 1983.[2]

Early life and education

Elwin Marg studied at the School of Optometry of the UC Berkeley. He entered an undergraduate course in 1938. In 1940, he received an AB in physiological optometry and a Certificate in Optometry. He completed PhD in 1950.[2]

Professional career

During the Second World War, Elwin Marg served as a communications officer in the U.S. Air Force with postings in Ireland, Tunisia, and Italy. During the Korean War he was reinstated for research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. He availed two sabbatical leaves at the Nobel Institute of Neurophysiology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, working with Ragnar Granit, future Nobel laureate, in 1956 and 1964, the latter under a Guggenheim Fellowship.[2] He spent the rest of his career at UC Berkeley till his retirement in 1988. First as an instructor in optometry in 1950, then as an assistant professor of physiological optics and optometry in 1951, an associate professor in 1956, and finally full professor in 1962. He published 99 technical papers in various areas.

In collaboration with R. Stuart Mackay, an electrical engineer at UC Berkeley, he completed a design of tonometer, a device for measuring intraocular pressure, in 1959.[3] This groundbreaking instrument was named Mackay-Marg Tonometer, after the developers.[4][5] This new tool did not require an anaesthetic and thus, for the first time, allowed optometrists to measure intraocular pressure more conveniently.[6]

In 1951 Marg described and named electrooculogram for a technique of measuring the resting potential of the retina in the human eye.[1][7]

Personal life

Elwin Marg died in Berkeley in 2010, survived by his daughter Tamia Marg Anderson. His wife Helen had predeceased him in 2001.[2]

Awards and honours
gollark: Just split it into 3-char chunks and decode them.
gollark: Why do you doubt something so obviously true?
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gollark: Pjals: it's 110111112101
gollark: They will not usually be capable of detecting cliffs.

References
  1. Donnell J. Creel (July 2011). "The Electroretinogram and Electro-oculogram: Clinical Applications". Webvision. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  2. Gerald Westheimer (2010). "IN MEMORIAM: Elwin Marg". senate.universityofcalifornia.edu. University of California. Archived from the original on September 7, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  3. Mackay RS, Marg E (1959). "Fast, automatic, electronic tonometers based on an exact theory". Acta Ophthalmol (Copenh). 37: 495–507. doi:10.1111/j.1755-3768.1959.tb03461.x. PMID 14419489.
  4. Moses RA, Marg E, Oechsli R (1962). "Evaluation of the basic validity and clinical usefulness of the Mackay-Marg tonometer". Invest Ophthalmol. 1 (2): 78–85. PMID 14476464.
  5. Mackay RS, Marg E, Oechsli R (1960). "Automatic tonometer with exact theory: various biological applications". Science. 131 (3414): 1668–1669. doi:10.1126/science.131.3414.1668. PMID 14419488.
  6. "In Memoriam". www.neuro-com.es. Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. October 2, 2010. Archived from the original on September 7, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  7. Marg E (1951). "Development of electro-oculography; standing potential of the eye in registration of eye movement". AMA Arch Ophthalmol. 45 (2): 169–185. doi:10.1001/archopht.1951.01700010174006. PMID 14799014.
  8. "Elwin Marg: 1963: Neuroscience". www.gf.org. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
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