William H. Sebrell Jr. (September 11, 1901 – September 29, 1992) was an American nutritionist.
Early years
Sebrell was born in
Portsmouth, Virginia
Portsmouth is an independent city in southeast Virginia and across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk. As of the 2020 census, the population was 97,915. It is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area.
The Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Naval M ...
. He received a B.A. degree from the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
and then enrolled in the medical school, receiving his M.D. in 1925.
Career
Sebrell joined the
Public Health Service
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
(PHS) in 1926. After completing an internship at the PHS Marine Hospital in New Orleans, Sebrell was assigned to the Hygienic Laboratory (as the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
was then known) in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
A leading international authority on nutrition, Sebrell first recognized and described the dietary deficiency disease,
ariboflavinosis, and made significant contributions to knowledge of dietary needs and deficiencies. He began his research career under
Dr. Joseph Goldberger, who demonstrated that pellagra is a deficiency disease. During the 1930s, Sebrell made many contributions to knowledge of the
anemia
Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, th ...
s and the role of diet in
cirrhosis
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...
.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Sebrell was co-director of the National Nutrition Program, which coordinated activities of all state agencies working in nutrition. This program aided food production and the maintenance of civilian health during the war years. In 1948 he became director of the Experimental Biology and Medicine Institute, and on October 1, 1950, he was appointed director of NIH. He held this post until his resignation on July 31, 1955, amidst the
Cutter Incident
Cutter Laboratories was a family-owned pharmaceutical company located in Berkeley, California, founded by Edward Ahern Cutter in 1897. Cutter's early products included anthrax vaccine, hog cholera (swine fever) virus, and anti-hog cholera serum— ...
, a scandal relating to improper preparation of
polio vaccines which resulted in children being injected with live polio virus.
[Edward Shorter, ''The Health Century'', Doubleday, New York, 1987, pp 68–70 ]
Sebrell helped to formulate the first international standards of nutrition for the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
and pioneered the growing acceptance of scientific nutrition as a regular function of modern state and local health departments.
Sebrell also organized Columbia University's Institute of Human Nutrition.
In April 1971, he joined the staff of
Weight Watchers.
Death
On September 29, 1992, Sebrell died from cancer at his home town in
Pompano Beach, Florida
Pompano Beach ( ) is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. As of the 2020 ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebrell, William H Jr
1901 births
1992 deaths
American nutritionists
University of Virginia School of Medicine alumni
Deaths from cancer in Florida
People from Portsmouth, Virginia
People from Pompano Beach, Florida
American public health doctors
Directors of the National Institutes of Health
Truman administration personnel
Eisenhower administration personnel