Wiesel Leaves

After close to three decades at Harvard, Nobel Prizewinner Dr. Torsten N. Wiesel '57 this summer moved to Rockefeller University to expand his research, the noted nuerobiologist said yesterday.

Wiesel said the additional facilities and freedom he will enjoy at Rockefeller will enable him to spend "90 percent of the time doing research." A "spirit of adventure" prompted him to make the move, he added.

His departure comes after more than twenty years of teaching and research at Harvard following his graduation from the College in 1957. Wiesel said, however, he is still teaching at Harvard as a visiting lecturer.

Nobel Laurels

He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Medecine with Harvard's Berry Professor of Neurobiology Dr. David H. Hubel '55 and Dr. Roger Sperry of the California Institute of Technology. The prize followed years of collaboration between Hubel and Wiesel on how the brain processes visual information.

Most Harvard Medical School professors interviewed yesterday said a job offer team Rockefeller would be tempting because if the research freedom and low reaching responsibilities there.

"Few people would not seriously consider a job there, no matter what their position," said Med School professor Harold Ames. "It's a marvelous place to work."

Associate Professor of Neurobiology Paul Patterson added that "Wiesel's expansion of research would not have been possible to such a degree at Harvard."

Wiesel's personal laboratory at Rockefeller was completed in early August one month after his move there.

A Swedish native, Wiesel for nine years chaired Harvard's Committee on Higher Degrees in Medical Sciences. In 1982, he abandoned his chairmanship to devote more time to research.