William Cumming Rose

Who was William Cumming Rose?

William Cumming Rose was an American nutritionist whose research in the 1930s determined the essential amino acids, including threonine.

William's father was a Presbyterian minister who began to homeschool William in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew when he was 14 years old. He also studied an introductory chemistry textbook by Ira Remsen. He then studied at Davidson College in North Carolina for his bachelor degree. He took up graduate education at Yale University studying food chemistry with Russell Chittenden and Lafayette Mendel. He was granted a Ph.D. in 1911.

Rose taught for a time at University of Pennsylvania with Alonzo Taylor. Taylor recommended him to University of Texas Galveston Medical School to organize a department of biochemistry. In 1922, he went to the University of Illinois as professor of physiological chemistry, a title which was changed to professor of biochemistry in 1936. From 1922 to 1955 he transformed his department into a center of excellence for the training of biochemists. His studies led him to the point where it was "practicable to evaluate proteins in terms of their ability to meet human needs." In June 1949 he published "Amino Acid Requirements of Man".