Elmer McCollum

Elmer Verner McCollum (* March 3, 1879 in Fort Scott, Kansas, † November 15, 1967 in Baltimore, Maryland) was an American biochemist.

Life and work

McCollum graduated from the University of Kansas. He received his doctorate at Yale University; thereafter he worked at the University of Wisconsin. From 1917 he was a professor at Johns Hopkins University.

He discovered several vitamins, so in 1897 together with Marguerite Davis ( 1887-1967 ), the vitamin B1. Retinol he discovered 1913 also along with Marguerite Davis.

The name of the vitamins with uppercase letters of the alphabet, he introduced in 1916.

Publications

  • EV McCollum and C. Kennedy: The dietary factors operating in the production of polyneuritis. In: Journal of Biological Chemistry. Volume 24, 1916, pp. 491-502.
  • EV McCollum, N. Simmonds, JE Becker and PG Shipley: Studies on experimental rickets. XXI. An experimental demonstration of the existence of a vitamin Which Promotes calcium deposition. Journal of Biological Chemistry. Volume 53, 1922, pp. 293-312.
  • A History of Nutrition: The Sequence of Ideas in Nutrition Investigations. Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1957.
  • From Kansas Farm Boy to Scientist. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 1964.
Biochemistry University of Wisconsin System Thiamine
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