A Conversation with Nevin Scrimshaw

Dr. Nevin Scrimshaw, Institute Professor Emeritus of Nutrition and Food Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks about his life and career with his former student Cutberto Garza, director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. Dr. Scrimshaw discusses how he discovered a compound, potassium iodate, that allowed Central American salt to be iodized, thereby preventing goiter, a swelling of the thyroid, in children. He also explains how he helped fight protein, vitamin A, and iron deficiencies in other parts of the developing world. Dr. Scrimshaw created the Institute of Nutrition in Central America and Panama and he founded the World Hunger Programme at the United Nations University, the International Nutrition Foundation, the Protein Advisory Group at the World Health Organization and UNICEF. He was also instrumental in identifying and explaining the link between nutrition and infection. Sadly, Dr. Scrimshaw passed away on February 8, 2013. We were honored to capture this conversation on video in August, 2012.