Conrad Elvehjem
Conrad Arnold Elvehjem (born May 27, 1901 in McFarland , Wisconsin , † July 27, 1962 in Madison , Wisconsin) was an American biochemist and nutritionist .
Elvehjem was the son of Norwegian immigrants who were farmers. He studied agricultural chemistry at the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a bachelor's degree in 1923 and a doctorate in 1927. He then studied another year at the University of Cambridge (with Frederick Gowland Hopkins ) and taught from 1930 as an assistant professor and from 1932 as Associate Professor of Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, with a full professorship in biochemistry in 1936. In 1944 he became head of the department of biochemistry and in 1946 dean of the graduate school . In 1958 he became president of the university.
Building on the work of Joseph Goldberger , he found in 1937 that nicotinic acid is the food component, the lack of which leads to pellagra (and black tongue disease in dogs). He showed that tryptophan is a precursor to nicotinamide in the metabolism and that some vitamins are produced by the intestinal flora. Elvehjem has published over 780 scientific papers. Among other things, he also contributed to the further identification of the vitamin B complex (which he divided into six components), which he dealt with from 1930.
In 1952 he received the Lasker ~ DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award . He was a three-time honorary doctor. In 1943 he received the Willard Gibbs Award . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and, since 1947, the American Philosophical Society . In 1953 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . 1955 to 1958 he was head of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council .
His students included Frederick John Stare , founder of the Nutrition Department at the Harvard School of Public Health .
literature
- Winfried Pötsch u. a. Lexicon of important chemists , Harri Deutsch 1989.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Member History: Conrad A. Elvehjem. American Philosophical Society, accessed July 29, 2018 .
- ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1950–1999 ( PDF ). Retrieved September 23, 2015
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Elvehjem, Conrad |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Elvehjem, Conrad Arnold (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American biochemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 27, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | McFarland , Wisconsin |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 27, 1962 |
| Place of death | Madison , Wisconsin |