Nevin Stewart Scrimshaw (January 20, 1918 – February 8, 2013) was an American food scientist and Institute Professor

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 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 th ...

. Scrimshaw was born in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

. During the course of his long career he developed nutritional supplements for alleviating

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, res ...

iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , ...

, and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

deficiencies in the developing world. His pioneering and extensive publications in the area of human nutrition and food science include over 20 books and monographs and hundreds of scholarly articles. Scrimshaw also founded the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama, and the Nevin Scrimshaw International Nutrition Foundation. He was awarded the Bolton L. Corson Medal in 1976 and the World Food Prize in 1991. Scrimshaw spent the last years of his life on a farm in Thornton, New Hampshire, where he died at 95.

Life

Scrimshaw came from New England, and spent the 1930s and 1940s there studying nutrition, especially protein combining, alongside his wife and fellow scientist, Mary Goodrich. In the 1950s and 1960s, they lived in

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. They designed meals using local vegetables to fight against the scourge of

kwashiorkor Kwashiorkor ( , ) is a form of severe protein malnutrition characterized by edema and an enlarged liver with fatty infiltrates. It is thought to be caused by sufficient calorie intake, but with insufficient protein consumption (or lack of go ...

. In Guatemala they used the combination of cottonseed flour with maize, while in India they combined peanut flour with wheat. His daughter is medical anthropologist and academic administrator Susan C. Scrimshaw.

Works

* 1968: (with John Everett Gordon) ''Malnutrition, learning and behavior'',

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* 1968: (with Carl E. Taylor and John Everett Gordon) ''Interactions of nutrition and infection'',

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

Monograph #57 * 1971: (with

Alan Berg Alan Harrison Berg (January 18, 1934 – June 18, 1984) was an American talk radio show host in Denver, Colorado. Born to a Jewish family, he had outspoken atheistic and liberal views and a confrontational interview style. Berg was murdered b ...

& David L. Call) ''Nutrition, national planning and development'', MIT Press * 1971: (editor with Aaron M. Altschul) ''Amino acid fortification of protein foods'', MIT Press * 1974: (editor with Moises Behar) ''Nutrition and agricultural development: significance and potential for the tropics'', Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama, Plenum Press * 1975: (with Max Milner & Daniel I. C. Wang) ''Protein resources and technology'', Avi Publishing * 1982: (with

Mitchel B. Wallerstein Mitchel B. Wallerstein is an American educator, philanthropist, policy expert, and former senior official of the federal government of the United States. He is the President Emeritus of Baruch College of the City University of New York and is c ...

) ''Nutrition policy implementation: issues and experience'', Plenum Press

Awards and honours

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016. The AMA's sta ...

/Joseph B. Goldberger Award in Clinical Nutrition, 1969 * Institute of Food Technologists Bor S. Luh International Award, 1969 (known then as the IFT International Award)Institute of Food Technologists
List of IFT past award winners
Retrieved 29 May 2012. * member,

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 Nat ...

, 1971 * American Society for Nutrition/Conrad Elvehjem Award for Public Service in Nutrition, 1976 * Bolton S. Corson Medal, 1976 * Fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition, 1985 *

Bristol-Myers The Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in New York City, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consistently ranks on the ''Fortune'' 500 list of the l ...

Award for Distinguished Achievements in Nutrition Research, 1988 * World Food Prize, 1991

References

External links

Works by and about Nevin S. Scrimshaw
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Scrimshaw, Nevin S. 1918 births 2013 deaths American food scientists Harvard University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Tufts University faculty People from Massachusetts Scientists from Milwaukee People from New York (state) Academic staff of United Nations University University of Rochester alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Auxologists People from Thornton, New Hampshire Agriculture and food award winners Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Life

Works

Awards and honours

References

Further reading

External links