Conrad A. Elvehjem
University of Wisconsin
For the isolation of niacin, the anti-pellagra vitamin, and for other distinguished contributions to nutrition research.
Conrad Elvehjem, the son of Norwegian emigrants to Wisconsin, has continued his residence and education in that state as he progressed through the secondary schools and the University of Wisconsin, where he received his doctorate in philosophy in 1927. As a member of the University faculty since 1925, he became a full professor in 1936, chairman of the biochemistry department in 1944 and dean of the graduate school in 1946, at 45 years of age. A National Research Council fellowship permitted a year at Cambridge University in England.
Measures of the esteem in which he is held include election to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Willard Gibbs Medal, the Osborne-Mendel Award, the Nicholas Appert Medal, the Meade Johnson Award, and an honorary doctor of science degree from Ripon College, and in 1952, he is vice president of the American Institute of Nutrition.
Dr. Elvehjem is honored by a Lasker Award for his basic research in demonstrating the requirement for copper, zinc and manganese as animal nutrients; for isolation of the antipellagra vitamin; for proof that the amino acid tryptophan is partly interchangeable with niacin as an essential nutrient; and for proof that several amino acids and vitamins in the B-complex are interdependent. He is a critical, inspiring teacher, a loyal friend and a contributor to the common good to whom the whole world is indebted.
