NU32-FrontMatter ARI 26 June 2012 13:26 by 24.59.144.93 on 03/02/13. For personal use only. Annu. Rev. Nutr. 2012.32:1-15. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org NU32CH01-Nesheim ARI 18 June 2012 11:0 An Unexpected Life in Nutrition Malden C. Nesheim Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853; email: [email protected] Annu. Rev. Nutr. 2012. 32:1–15 Keywords First published online as a Review in Advance on Cornell, animal nutrition, genetics, parasites March 8, 2012 The Annual Review of Nutrition is online at Abstract nutr.annualreviews.org In this biographical article, I describe the evolution of my career in This article’s doi: nutrition from an early period as an animal nutritionist interested in 10.1146/annurev-nutr-071811-150715 amino acid metabolism and genetic variation in nutrient requirements Copyright c 2012 by Annual Reviews. to an involvement in human nutrition and international public health. All rights reserved The career changes were in some respects a mirror of the evolution of 0199-9885/12/0821-0001$20.00 nutritional science in my lifetime. I spent my entire career at Cornell University in what I think of as three distinct phases. As a researcher and teacher in the Poultry Science Department, I was able to do re- search in animal nutrition and witness the rapid industrialization of the by 24.59.144.93 on 03/02/13. For personal use only. production of poultry meat and eggs, helped by the findings of the era of nutrient discovery in nutritional science. Later I had the opportunity to lead the reorganization of human nutrition at Cornell during a pe- Annu. Rev. Nutr. 2012.32:1-15. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org riod when research in nutritional science turned away from identifying new nutrients and became increasingly concerned with the roles of diet and chronic disease. During this period my research focus evolved as I became interested in aspects of international nutrition problems, partic- ularly the influence of parasitic infections on child health and nutrition. I also became involved nationally in nutrition issues through participa- tion in organizations such as the National Nutrition Consortium, the Food and Nutrition Board, and National Institutes of Health study sec- tions at a time of great ferment in nutrition about the relationship of dietary patterns to health. Finally, I became provost of Cornell Univer- sity and involved in the administration of a major research university. I describe my career in the context of my origins and early education springing from life on a sustainable family farm in rural Illinois. 1 NU32CH01-Nesheim ARI 18 June 2012 11:0 had no electricity until 1938, the farm pro- Contents duced most of the food for the family—crops of corn, oats, and hay that were fed to cattle and INTRODUCTION.................. 2 lambs brought from Western ranges to be fat- ORIGINS............................ 2 tened prior to being sent to the Chicago stock- ANIMAL NUTRITION YEARS . 4 yards. We had three or four cows for our milk, CHANGE OF DIRECTION . 7 cream, and butter and always had a few pigs. ANEWOPPORTUNITY........... 8 The manure went back on the land. My mother NUTRITION AND PARASITES . 9 cared for a flock of chickens that provided eggs PUBLICSERVICE.................. 10 and meat. We exchanged excess eggs for staple ANOTHER CORNELL CAREER . 13 foods such as flour and sugar at a local gro- cery store. We tended an apple orchard and a large garden. We preserved food by home can- INTRODUCTION ning and by home curing ham and bacon. Our 170 acres produced sufficient food and income It never occurred to me while growing up on a to support our large family. farm in rural Illinois that I would become deeply IworkedonthefarmasIgrewup,andI involved in the science of nutrition and spend drove a tractor from the age of 8. The farm is my life at an Eastern university. But I have had no longer in the family. Today it produces corn an unusual opportunity to be part of nutritional and soybeans, has no livestock, and is farmed as science and to observe its evolution for nearly part of a large commercial operation. When I 60 years. I began my academic career as an ex- visited the farm recently, there was no garden perimental animal nutritionist, but over time or orchard; the barn, silo, corn crib, and feedlot my focus changed as I became interested in hu- were gone; and there was no food in sight—a man nutrition and its role in public health. My prime example of the vast change in Midwest- career also included a variety of administrative ern agriculture in the past 60 years. roles that expanded my skills and perspective. Education was important in my family, per- Perhaps my experience can help those begin- haps because of my mother’s background as a ning in the field now to recognize the ways in teacher. Six of the eight children completed col- which careers in nutritional science can and do lege, three obtained PhDs and the other three evolve. earned master’s degrees. I attended grades 1 by 24.59.144.93 on 03/02/13. For personal use only. through 8 in the same one-room rural school ORIGINS where my mother had taught. When I gradu- I am the seventh of eight children of a farm ated from the eighth grade, the total enrollment Annu. Rev. Nutr. 2012.32:1-15. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org family from near Rochelle, Illinois. My father of the school consisted of two eighth-graders was a Norwegian immigrant who arrived in the and one second-grader. In earlier years there United States in 1904 at the age of 14 after had been as many as 18 pupils among the eight completing the schooling mandated in Norway grades. I graduated from Rochelle Township at that time. My mother was the daughter of High School in 1949 as one of a class of 66. I German immigrants who came to this country was a good student (second in my class academ- right after the American Civil War. She com- ically), and I was senior class president. pleted high school, which was sufficient educa- In the fall of 1949 I enrolled at the Uni- tion for her to become an elementary school versity of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, which teacher in a one-room rural school near her fa- seemed to me to be the only college to consider. ther’s farm. In 1929 my parents bought a 170- I won a county scholarship to study agricul- acre farm, where I was born in 1931. ture. This paid my tuition of $40 per semester By today’s standards, the farm would be con- for four years. I worked summers for a local sidered a model sustainable farm. Although we contractor as a carpenter, constructing farm 2 Nesheim NU32CH01-Nesheim ARI 18 June 2012 11:0 buildings in the local area and saving enough always reminds me of the folly of underestimat- to pay most of my college expenses. My par- ing one’s students and short-changing them by ents provided very little financial help. This ex- providing watered-down instruction that limits perience is in sharp contrast to the challenges options. In the spring of 1953, I entered gradu- faced by today’s students and families, as sup- ate school at Illinois to pursue a master’s degree port for public higher education has waned and in animal nutrition, working with Gene Becker public universities have become much more ex- and Stanley Terrell in the Animal Science pensive. The University of Illinois at Urbana- Department. Champaign listed 2011–12 tuition for Illinois Illinois was a wonderful place to get a basic residents as $14,414 to $19,238, depending on knowledge of nutrition and biochemistry. Carl the major, with total estimated costs of up to Vestling taught basic biochemistry, Herbert $33,028. It is hard to imagine working one’s way Carter and Lavelle Henderson taught advanced through college today without substantial fam- courses, and nutrition pioneer W. C. Rose ily help or without incurring considerable debt. was still on the campus, though retired. Tom I initially followed a general agriculture cur- Hamilton and Harold H. Mitchell taught a riculum, having little experience beyond the graduate-level course in comparative nutrition farm and no clue as to what I wished to do with that met five days a week for two semesters. my life at that stage. It seemed only natural for They covered the whole field of nutrition in a farm boy to study agriculture. Fortunately for depth during that year. I took the course during me, my older brother, Robert Nesheim, who the last year in which Mitchell taught before had served in the United States Army in World he retired. His was an extraordinary course in War II, enrolled as a graduate student in ani- classical energy metabolism and nutrition that mal nutrition at Illinois in 1950. I had grown has stayed relevant and important to this day. up with Bob, an admired big brother. Observ- Hans Fisher was in the same class that year, and ing his graduate study opened up possibilities he relates a similar experience in his own career that were new to me. He was working with B. reflections in the 2009 volume of the Annual Connor Johnson on studies of vitamin B12 re- Review of Nutrition. Mitchell had received quirements in baby pigs. Some of his research his PhD in chemistry from the University of required use of a purified diet designed as an ar- Illinois in 1915.