Vernon R. Young

Who was Vernon R. Young?

Vernon Robert Young was an expert on protein and amino acid requirements and researched how the human body processes nutrients into protein. Young was a principal organizer of amino acid Workshops sponsored by the International Council of Amino Acid Science and was the Chairman of the Council's Scientific Advisory Board.

Young was born in Rhyl, Wales, and educated in England at the University of Cambridge and the University of Reading, where he received degrees in agriculture, before earning his doctorate in nutrition at the University of California, Davis, in 1965. He joined the M.I.T. faculty that year and in 1977 became a professor of nutritional biochemistry.

Young also served as associate program director for M.I.T.'s Clinical Research Center during the 1980s and held posts at Harvard Medical School and the Boston Shriners Hospital. He was a former president of the American Institute of Nutrition and, in 1990, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. In 1993, Young was elected to the academy's Institute of Medicine.