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. He studied at the University of Wisconsin -Madison with a PhD 1927. Subsequently, he studied for a year at the University of Cambridge and taught from 1923 agricultural chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, with a full professorship in 1936. 1944 he became head of the Faculty 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 in 1937 he found that nicotinic acid is the ingredient of food, the lack of which leads to pellagra ( and black - tongue disease in dogs). He has published over 780 scientific papers. Among other things, he also contributed to the further identification of the vitamin B complex.

In 1952 he received the Lasker ~ DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. He was three honorary doctorates. In 1943 he received the Willard Gibbs Award. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Among his students was Frederick John Stare, founder of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.