Vernon Robert Young (November 15, 1937 – March 30, 2004) was an expert on

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

and

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...

requirements and researched how the human body processes nutrients into protein. Young was a principal organizer of amino acid Workshops sponsored by the International Council of Amino Acid Science and was the Chairman of the Council's Scientific Advisory Board. Young was born in Rhyl,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, and educated in England at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

, where he received degrees in agriculture, before earning his doctorate in nutrition at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, in 1965. He joined the

M.I.T. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

faculty that year and in 1977 became a professor of nutritional biochemistry. Young also served as associate program director for M.I.T.'s Clinical Research Center during the 1980s and held posts at Harvard Medical School and the Boston Shriners Hospital. He was a former president of the American Institute of Nutrition and, in 1990, was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. In 1993, Young was elected to the academy's Institute of Medicine. His contributions were recognized not only by his election to the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and to the Institute of Medicine of the Academy, but also by his receipt of awards, including the Mead-Johnson, Borden, and Conrad Elvehjem Awards of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, the McCollum Award of the American Society of Clinical Nutrition, the Rank Prize in Nutrition in 1989, the Gopalan Oration and Gold Medal of the Nutrition Society of India, the Bristol Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Nutrition Research, the Danone International Prize for Nutrition, the Roger Williams Award in Preventive Nutrition, the International Award for Modern Nutrition, the W.O. Atwater Award from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, and the Jonathan E. Rhoads Award of the American Society for Parental and Enteral Nutrition. In 2001, Young was named to the board of directors of Nestle corporation.

Additional academic appointments

In addition to his professorship at MIT, Young served as associate program director of the MIT Clinical Research Center, 1985–1987, and director of research for the Shriners Burns Institute, 1987-1990. Additional appointments in Boston at the time of his death included lecturer in surgery, Harvard University, and senior visiting scientist, U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Center on Aging, Tufts University, 1988-2004. Young also held appointments as visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, 1983; University of Southern California Medical School, March 1984; University of Illinois, Urbana, March 1986; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, March 1986; University of Iowa, Iowa City, May 1986; University of Florida, Gainesville, December 1987; Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, January 1988; Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Cleveland, September 1988. He served as visiting research fellow, Merton College, Oxford, U.K., April–June 1994; visiting scholar, University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio 1996; and visiting professor, the Universities of Wageningen and Maastrich, The Netherlands, 2000; and visiting research fellow, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, 2002.

National and international lectureships and committees

Young’s named lectureships included the Vickers Lecture of the British Neonatal Health Science Center, San Antonio, 1986; the American Society for Nutritional Sciences McCollum Award Lecture, 1987; Burns Lecture, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Scotland, 1990; Brackenridge Lecture, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, 1996; Bruce and Virginia Street Lecture in Preventive Nutrition, University of North Texas, Fort Worth, 1996; Ninth Annual Malcolm Trout Lecture, Michigan State University, 1997; Rudolf Schonheimer Centenary Lecture, Nutrition Society of U.K.,1998; first David Murdock Lecture in Nutrition, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, 1998; Jonathan Roads Lecture, American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. 1999; Hans Fischer Lecture, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, 1999; and W. O. Atwater Lecture and Award, USDA Agricultural Research Service, 2001. Editorial boards on which he served included the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1976–1978; Nutrition Research, 1980–1984; Advances in Nutrition Research, 1976–2004; Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 1981–1985; Age, 1977–1982; Growth, 1986–1990; Journal of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, 1990–1994; and Nutrition Today, 1997-2004.

Awards

Mead-Johnson Award (1973), the Borden Award (1983), the McCollum Award (1987), the Rank Prize in Nutrition (1989), and Danone Prize (1998).

External links

Nevin S. Scrimshaw, Arnold L. Demain, and Naomi K. Fukagawa, "Vernon R. Young", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2008)

References

1937 births 2004 deaths Alumni of the University of Cambridge Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of California, Davis alumni Welsh scientists University of Michigan staff 20th-century Welsh scientists 20th-century American scientists Members of the National Academy of Medicine {{Authority control