Selig Hecht (February 8, 1892 – September 18, 1947) was an American physiologist who studied photochemistry in photoreceptor cells.
He spent time as a post-doctoral researcher with the group of Edward Charles Cyril Baly at the University of Liverpool, UK.
Baly was a pioneer in the application of the technique of spectroscopy in chemistry, and Hecht took this further by applying it to biological molecules.
Ultracentrifugation was one of methods he used for characterization and this produced an added dividend, demonstrating that the complex absorption of the 'pigment' (suggesting the possibility of many components) segmented in toto with the protein.
By this time the carotenoid prosthetic group had been discovered as the source of colour by George Wald and Hecht pointed out that this meant that the protein had to be a conjugated protein, with the chromophore firmly attached.According to biographer Pirenne,[6] Hecht was a "brilliant lecturer and expositor."