Edwin Herbert Land (May 12 1909 – March 1 1991) was an American scientist and inventor. Among other things, he invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, instant polaroid photography, and his retinex theory of color vision. At one time, he was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's richest scientist.

Biography

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Early years

Edwin was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Harry and Helen Land. His father owned a scrap metal yard. He was an alumnus of the Norwich Free Academy in Norwich, Connecticut, a semi-private high school. The library there was posthumously named for him, having been funded by grants from his family. He studied chemistry at Harvard. After his freshman year, he left Harvard for New York City.

In New York City, he invented the first inexpensive filters capable of polarizing light. Because he was not associated with an educational institution, he lacked the tools of a proper laboratory. Instead, he would sneak into a laboratory at Columbia University late at night to use their equipment. He also availed himself of the New York City public library to scour the scientific literature for prior work on polarizing substances. His breakthrough came when he realized that instead of attempting to grow a large single crystal of a polarizing substance, he could manufacture a film with millions of micrometre-sized polarizing crystals that were coaxed into perfect alignment with each other.

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