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

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. Scrimshaw was born in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. 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 residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

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

, and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () 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, forming much of Earth's o ...

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 The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. Conceived by Nobel Peace Prize laureate No ...

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 Protein combining or protein complementing is a dietary theory for protein nutrition that purports to optimize the biological value of protein intake. According to the theory, individual vegetarian and vegan foods may provide an insufficient amo ...

, alongside his wife and fellow scientist, Mary Goodrich. In the 1950s and 1960s, they lived in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

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

kwashiorkor Kwashiorkor ( , is also ) 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 lac ...

. 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'',

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

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

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

Monograph #57 * 1971: (with

Alan Berg Alan Harrison Berg (January 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 assassinated 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 Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

* 1975: (with Max Milner & Daniel I. C. Wang) ''Protein resources and technology'', Avi Publishing * 1982: (with Mitchel B. Wallerstein) ''Nutrition policy implementation: issues and experience'', Plenum Press

Awards and honours

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is an American professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. This medical association was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was 271,660 ...

/Joseph B. Goldberger Award in Clinical Nutrition, 1969 *

Institute of Food Technologists The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) is an international, non-profit scientific society of professionals engaged in food science, food technology, and related areas in academia, government and industry. It has more than 17,000 members from ...

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, NGO, 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 ...

, 1971 *

American Society for Nutrition The American Society for Nutrition (ASN) is an American society for professional researchers and practitioners in the field of nutrition. ASN publishes four journals in the field of nutrition. It has been criticized for its financial ties to the ...

/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, doing business as Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consiste ...

Award for Distinguished Achievements in Nutrition Research, 1988 *

, 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 Scientists from Massachusetts Scientists from Milwaukee Scientists 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 Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni

Life

Works

Awards and honours

References

Further reading

External links