Background
Marg, Elwin was born on March 23, 1918 in San Francisco, California, United States. Son of Sigmund and Fannie (Sockolov) Marg.
optometry educator physiological optics
Marg, Elwin was born on March 23, 1918 in San Francisco, California, United States. Son of Sigmund and Fannie (Sockolov) Marg.
He was the first to receive a Doctor of Philosophy from University of California Berkeley School of Optometry. Elwin Marg studied at the School of Optometry of the University of California Berkeley. He completed Doctor of Philosophy in 1950.
lieutenant was he who gave the name electrooculogram, a technique for measurement of nerve impulse in the eye. He developed an improved tonometer that avoided use of anaesthetics for the first time in optometrical diagnosis. He entered an undergraduate course in 1938.
In 1940, he received an Bachelor of Arts in physiological optometry and a Certificate in Optometry.
During the Second World War, Elwin Marg served as a communications officer in the United States. 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. He spent the rest of his career at University of California 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 University of California Berkeley, he completed a design of tonometer, a device for measuring intraocular pressure, in 1959. This groundbreaking instrument was named Mackay-Marg Tonometer, after the developers.
This new tool did not require an anaesthetic and thus, for the first time, allowed optometrists to measure intraocular pressure more conveniently.
In 1951 Marg described and named electrooculogram for a technique of measuring the resting potential of the retina in the human eye.
Served lieutenant colonel United States Air Force, 1941-1946, 50-52, European Theatre of Operations. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, Optical Society American, American Academy Optometry. Member Society Neuroscis., Association Research Vision and Ophthalmology, International Society Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. M C.
Married Helen Eugenia Kelly, April 1, 1942. 1 child, Tamia.