Roger J. Williams

Professor Roger John Williams (August 14, 1893 – February 20, 1988), was an American biochemist who named folic acid and discovered pantothenic acid, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and President of the American Chemical Society.

Biography

Roger John Williams was born in Ootacamund, India, of American missionary parents on August 14, 1893. At age 2 his family returned to the U.S., where he grew up in Kansas and California. His formal education culminated in a Ph.D. degree (magna cum laude) from the University of Chicago in 1919. He taught at the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and beginning in 1940, at the University of Texas at Austin. He authored several widely used textbooks of organic chemistry and biochemistry. He became Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in 1971 and retired that position in 1986 at age 92.

While studying the nutrition of yeast cells, he discovered that aneurin (now named thiamine or vitamin B1), first described as a vitamin for humans, also promoted the growth of yeasts. This important finding opened the way for the use of microorganisms (yeast and bacteria) in nutritional research, which greatly sped up their discovery and the analysis of their metabolic effects. Later, again using yeasts, he discovered and isolated pantothenic acid and found a way for its chemical synthesis. Later he concentrated folic acid, another B-vitamin, and gave it its name.

At the University of Texas he founded and directed the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute from 1940 to 1963 (now called the Biochemical Institute), when he retired from that position. More vitamins and their variants were discovered in this laboratory than in any other laboratory in the world.

Following his retirement from the Directorship of the Institute, he concentrated on human nutrition as his central field of interest, writing several widely read books. After his 80th birthday he continued to be actively involved, writing and editing several important books dealing with aspects of human nutrition and education.

Professor Williams was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was President of the American Chemical Society in 1957. He received honorary D.Sc. degrees from Columbia University, Oregon State University and University of Redlands, his alma mater. In 1941, for his discovery of pantothenic acid, he received the Mead Johnson Award of the American Institute of Nutrition and the Chandler Medal of Columbia University. In 1972 he served as a member of President Nixon's Advisory Panel on Heart Disease.

Williams married Hazel Elizabeth Wood in 1916; they raised three children. After Hazel's death in 1952 he married Mabel Phyllis Hobson the next year. He was an avid fisher, golfer, walker and fan of University of Texas at Austin athletics. He died of pneumonia in an Austin nursing home at age 94 and is buried in Austin Memorial Park. His papers are in the University of Texas archives.

Books

:"Many of Dr. Williams' books were published before the introduction of the International Standard Book Number or ISBN, and therefore do not have an ISBN."

* "The Human Frontier" (Harcourt Brace, 1946)
* "The Biochemistry of B vitamins", Roger J. Williams and others (Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1950)
* "Free and Unequal: The Biological Basis of Individual Liberty." (Univ. of Texas Press, 1953)
* "Biochemical Individuality: The Basis for the Genetotrophic Concept" (John Wiley & Sons, 1956; University of Texas Press, 1969 to 1979; Keats Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-87983-893-0) (also translated into Russian, Italian and Polish)
* "Alcoholism: The Nutritional Approach" (Univ. of Texas Press, 1959 to 1978)
* "Nutrition in a Nutshell" (1962, Doubleday and Dolphin)
* "The encyclopedia of biochemistry", edited by Roger J. Williams and Edwin M. Lansford, Jr. (Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1967)
* "You are Extraordinary" (Random House, 1967)
* "Nutrition Against Disease: Environmental Prevention" (Pitman 1971, Bantam Books, 1973)
* "Physicians' Handbook of Nutritional Science" (C.C. Thomas, 1975)
* "The Wonderful World Within You: Your Inner Nutritional Environment" (Bantam Books, 1977; Bio-Communications Press 1987-1998)
* "The Prevention of Alcoholism Through Nutrition" (Bantam Books, 1981)
* "Rethinking Education: The Coming Age of Enlightenment" (Philosophical Library, 1986).

References

* This biography was sourced with permission from the [http://neon.cm.utexas.edu/williams/briefbio.htm University of Texas website] .

See also

* Orthomolecular medicine
* Megavitamin therapy
* Nutritional genomics
* Metabolomics

External links

* [http://bioinst.cm.utexas.edu/williams/books.htm Books & Edited works]
* [http://bioinst.cm.utexas.edu/williams/1919.htm Articles by Roger J. Williams, 1919 to 1944]
* [http://bioinst.cm.utexas.edu/williams/1945.htm Articles by Roger J. Williams, 1945 to 1964]
* [http://bioinst.cm.utexas.edu/williams/1965.htm Articles by Roger J. Williams, 1965 to present]
* [http://bioinst.cm.utexas.edu/williams/briefbio.htm Biographical webpage]