IUNS are pleased to announce, Dr Camila Corvalán, of Chile is the inaugural winner of the Dr Nevin S. Scrimshaw prize.

The prize is in the name of Dr Nevin S Scrimshaw who was a pioneer researcher, awarded the World Food Prize in 1991, he was also Institute Professor Emeritus and founder of the first Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and founder of the Food and Nutrition Bulletin (FNB) journal. 

His research was centered on finding solutions for malnutrition to treat undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies across nations.

IUNS is proud to count Dr Scrimshaw among our illustrious former council members. Dr Scrimshaw served from 1972 – 1975 as IUNS Vice–President and as the President of IUNS from 1978 – 1981. One of his passions was ensuring the constant improvement of public health and nutrition via mentoring the next generation of nutrition scientists. He believed in working to prevent what he called “brain drain”, or talent only being clustered around the major nutrition universities and institutes in high-income countries.  IUNS hope to honor the work of Dr Scrimshaw by continuing to support the careers and development of mid-career nutrition scientists working in Latin America, Asia or Africa with this special prize.

Dr Corvalán was selected for this prize for making highly important contributions to scholarship and mentorship with direct policy and programmatic relevance for her home country of Chile, the Latin America region, and globally.

Dr Corvalán will be presenting a plenary lecture during the closing ceremony of the Congress on 11 December, co-chaired by the current President of IUNS, Professor J. Alfredo Martinez and President Elect, Dr Lynnette Neufeld.