Nevin Scrimshaw
Encyclopedia
Nevin Stewart Scrimshaw (born January 20, 1918) is a food scientist and Institute Professor
emeritus
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. Scrimshaw was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
. His accomplishments over six decades in fighting protein
, iodine, and iron deficiencies, developing nutritional supplements, educating generations of experts, and building support for continued advances in food quality have made substantial improvements in the lives of millions throughout the world. For this work he won the 1991 World Food Prize
. He also won the Bolton S. Corson Medal in 1976.
in 1941 and a medical degree from the University of Rochester
four years later. His contributions to human nutrition began during his medical training with his studies of nutrition and pregnancy in Panama. In recognition of this work, Dr. Scrimshaw was asked to establish and lead the Institute of Nutrition of Central American and Panama (INCAP) in Guatemala
.
He came to MIT in 1961 as professor of human nutrition and head of a new Department of Nutrition and Food Science. In 1976 he established the International Food and Nutrition Planning Program at MIT, which provided training in nutrition research for scientists in developing countries. In 1980, as Institute Professor, he began research on the functional consequences of iron deficiency and developed methods for getting iron into the diets of people in underdeveloped countries. Today he remains one of the principal advisors to international and national organizations in the field of food and nutrition. He retired from MIT in 1988.
and food science
research, training, and application.
In the 1950s, Dr. Scrimshaw worked toward solutions for kwashiorkor
, a deadly disease afflicting young children lacking adequate protein in their diet. Characterized by apathy
, anorexia
, swelling, blackening of the skin, and rapid hair loss, kwashiorkor affected children throughout Latin America
, Africa
, and Asia
. Typically, children would die of the disease within weeks of diagnosis.
Realizing from studies at INCAP and elsewhere that the protein deficiency developed when breast milk
was no longer the sole source of food, Dr. Scrimshaw searched for an alternative protein source available to poor Central American families. At the time, the cost of one protein-rich egg
was equivalent to that of a meal for an entire family.
. Today, INCAPARINA is given to 80 percent of Guatemalan children in their first year of life to combat protein deficiency. During the 1966 famine in India
, Dr. Scrimshaw guided the development of a similar food, BALAHAR, from peanut flour and wheat. His principle of basing nutrition programs in locally produced, lower-cost foods to ensure the prevention of malnutrition has been reproduced in many developing countries.
, a result of iodine deficiency. Marked by a swelling of the thyroid gland, it can lead to mental retardation
, deafness, and dwarfism
in children born to affected mothers. Scrimshaw saw that the North American technique of iodizing salt with water-soluble potassium iodide
would be ineffective in developing countries, where salt is a crude product typically sold moist on a palm leaf.
After testing several compounds and consulting with experts, Dr. Scrimshaw developed a method of iodizing moist salt with non-soluble potassium iodate. In trials among school children, for whom goiter prevalence was approximately 60 percent, treatment with either iodide or iodate caused most of their goiters to disappear.
These results prompted Scrimshaw to work with governments of the region to require iodation of all salt for human consumption. At the time of its introduction in Guatemala, national prevalence of endemic goiter was 38 percent. Within two years, it had dropped to 14 percent, and by the third year levels had fallen to virtually zero. Since then, the same process has alleviated endemic goiters in many countries throughout Latin America and the world.
and the Indian subcontinent. After visiting Bangladesh
and India
in 1971, he helped initiate "Operation Beta" to reduce the severe malnourishment among children in refugee camps there.
He is equally accomplished as an educator. In 1961, two years after earning a Harvard
M.P.H. degree, Dr. Scrimshaw established the new Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. He initiated research in 1981 on the functional consequences of iron deficiency, a field of study that continues to occupy him as coordinator of the Iron Deficiency Project Advisory Service, sponsored by the International Nutrition Foundation – which Dr. Scrimshaw founded in 1982 and continues to lead today.
In 1975, Dr. Scrimshaw initiated and directed the World Hunger Program during the development of the United Nations University
, and also directed its successor, the Food, Nutrition, Human and Social Development Programme, from 1981 to 1988. He continues to advise the program and edit its publications. In addition, he has taught at Tufts University
since 1987. More than 500 food and nutrition scientists from developing countries have been educated and trained in programs created by Dr. Scrimshaw, helping the poorest areas of the world identify and meet their own most pressing nutritional needs.
Dr. Scrimshaw has written or edited over 20 books and monographs and more than 650 articles on clinical nutrition, nutrition and infection, agricultural and food chemistry, food and nutrition policy, and public health. Dr. Scrimshaw remains a principal advisor to international and national organizations in the field of food and nutrition.
He actually has more awards than he himself remembers, including a knighthood from the King of Thailand for his work in Thailand.
Institute Professor
Institute Professor is the highest title that can be awarded to a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States...
emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. Scrimshaw was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
. His accomplishments over six decades in fighting protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
, iodine, and iron deficiencies, developing nutritional supplements, educating generations of experts, and building support for continued advances in food quality have made substantial improvements in the lives of millions throughout the world. For this work he won the 1991 World Food Prize
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.-The Prize:...
. He also won the Bolton S. Corson Medal in 1976.
Early education and work
Scrimshaw earned a doctorate in physiology from Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1941 and a medical degree from the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
four years later. His contributions to human nutrition began during his medical training with his studies of nutrition and pregnancy in Panama. In recognition of this work, Dr. Scrimshaw was asked to establish and lead the Institute of Nutrition of Central American and Panama (INCAP) in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
.
He came to MIT in 1961 as professor of human nutrition and head of a new Department of Nutrition and Food Science. In 1976 he established the International Food and Nutrition Planning Program at MIT, which provided training in nutrition research for scientists in developing countries. In 1980, as Institute Professor, he began research on the functional consequences of iron deficiency and developed methods for getting iron into the diets of people in underdeveloped countries. Today he remains one of the principal advisors to international and national organizations in the field of food and nutrition. He retired from MIT in 1988.
Breakthroughs at INCAP
As founding director from 1949 to 1961, he led the development of this institution from an initial membership of three countries to a regional leader in the prevention of nutritional deficiencies. The Institute today remains a major center for nutritionNutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
and food science
Food science
Food science is a study concerned with all technical aspects of foods, beginning with harvesting or slaughtering, and ending with its cooking and consumption, an ideology commonly referred to as "from field to fork"...
research, training, and application.
In the 1950s, Dr. Scrimshaw worked toward solutions for kwashiorkor
Kwashiorkor
Kwashiorkor is an acute form of childhood protein-energy malnutrition characterized by edema, irritability, anorexia, ulcerating dermatoses, and an enlarged liver with fatty infiltrates. The presence of edema caused by poor nutrition defines kwashiorkor...
, a deadly disease afflicting young children lacking adequate protein in their diet. Characterized by apathy
Apathy
Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical or physical life.They may lack a sense of purpose or meaning in...
, anorexia
Anorexia (symptom)
Anorexia is the decreased sensation of appetite...
, swelling, blackening of the skin, and rapid hair loss, kwashiorkor affected children throughout Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. Typically, children would die of the disease within weeks of diagnosis.
Realizing from studies at INCAP and elsewhere that the protein deficiency developed when breast milk
Breast milk
Breast milk, more specifically human milk, is the milk produced by the breasts of a human female for her infant offspring...
was no longer the sole source of food, Dr. Scrimshaw searched for an alternative protein source available to poor Central American families. At the time, the cost of one protein-rich egg
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
was equivalent to that of a meal for an entire family.
INCAPARINA and BALAHAR
Scrimshaw oversaw the development of INCAPARINA, mainly a mixture of cotton-seed flour and maize, which could be purchased at one-fifth the cost of milkMilk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
. Today, INCAPARINA is given to 80 percent of Guatemalan children in their first year of life to combat protein deficiency. During the 1966 famine in India
Famine in India
Famine has been a recurrent feature of life in the Indian sub-continental countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and reached its numerically deadliest peak in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Historical and legendary evidence names some 90 famines in 2,500 years of history. There...
, Dr. Scrimshaw guided the development of a similar food, BALAHAR, from peanut flour and wheat. His principle of basing nutrition programs in locally produced, lower-cost foods to ensure the prevention of malnutrition has been reproduced in many developing countries.
Fighting goiter
Also while at INCAP, Scrimshaw focused on endemic GoitreGoitre
A goitre or goiter , is a swelling in the thyroid gland, which can lead to a swelling of the neck or larynx...
, a result of iodine deficiency. Marked by a swelling of the thyroid gland, it can lead to mental retardation
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
, deafness, and dwarfism
Dwarfism
Dwarfism is short stature resulting from a medical condition. It is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than 4 feet 10 inches , although this definition is problematic because short stature in itself is not a disorder....
in children born to affected mothers. Scrimshaw saw that the North American technique of iodizing salt with water-soluble potassium iodide
Potassium iodide
Potassium iodide is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula KI. This white salt is the most commercially significant iodide compound, with approximately 37,000 tons produced in 1985. It is less hygroscopic than sodium iodide, making it easier to work with...
would be ineffective in developing countries, where salt is a crude product typically sold moist on a palm leaf.
After testing several compounds and consulting with experts, Dr. Scrimshaw developed a method of iodizing moist salt with non-soluble potassium iodate. In trials among school children, for whom goiter prevalence was approximately 60 percent, treatment with either iodide or iodate caused most of their goiters to disappear.
These results prompted Scrimshaw to work with governments of the region to require iodation of all salt for human consumption. At the time of its introduction in Guatemala, national prevalence of endemic goiter was 38 percent. Within two years, it had dropped to 14 percent, and by the third year levels had fallen to virtually zero. Since then, the same process has alleviated endemic goiters in many countries throughout Latin America and the world.
Further international work and teaching
In the 1960s, Dr. Scrimshaw was instrumental in developing broad American support for high-priority research on nutrition problems in Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and the Indian subcontinent. After visiting Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in 1971, he helped initiate "Operation Beta" to reduce the severe malnourishment among children in refugee camps there.
He is equally accomplished as an educator. In 1961, two years after earning a Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
M.P.H. degree, Dr. Scrimshaw established the new Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. He initiated research in 1981 on the functional consequences of iron deficiency, a field of study that continues to occupy him as coordinator of the Iron Deficiency Project Advisory Service, sponsored by the International Nutrition Foundation – which Dr. Scrimshaw founded in 1982 and continues to lead today.
In 1975, Dr. Scrimshaw initiated and directed the World Hunger Program during the development of the United Nations University
United Nations University
The United Nations University is an academic arm of the United Nations established in 1973, which serves purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The UNU undertakes research into the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of...
, and also directed its successor, the Food, Nutrition, Human and Social Development Programme, from 1981 to 1988. He continues to advise the program and edit its publications. In addition, he has taught at Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
since 1987. More than 500 food and nutrition scientists from developing countries have been educated and trained in programs created by Dr. Scrimshaw, helping the poorest areas of the world identify and meet their own most pressing nutritional needs.
Dr. Scrimshaw has written or edited over 20 books and monographs and more than 650 articles on clinical nutrition, nutrition and infection, agricultural and food chemistry, food and nutrition policy, and public health. Dr. Scrimshaw remains a principal advisor to international and national organizations in the field of food and nutrition.
Additional awards
- Institute of Food TechnologistsInstitute of Food TechnologistsThe Institute of Food Technologists or IFT is an international, non-profit professional organization for the advancement of food science and technology. It is the largest of food science organizations in the world, encompassing 22,000 members worldwide as of 2006. It is referred to as "THE Society...
Bor S. Luh International AwardBor S. Luh International AwardThe Bor S. Luh International Award has been awarded every year since 1956. Before 2005, this award was named the International Award. It is given to an individual or institution that had outstanding efforts in one of the following areas in food technology: 1) International exchange of ideas, 2)...
- 1969 (known then as the IFT International Award) - List of members of the National Academy of Sciences - 1971
- Presidential gold medal "Heroes of Public Health" award from President Fox of Mexico (an award which his daughter Susan Scrimshaw also received).
- World Food Prize Laureate (1991)
He actually has more awards than he himself remembers, including a knighthood from the King of Thailand for his work in Thailand.