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Dr. Brown is a Professor of Nutrition and Director of the Program in International and Community Nutrition. He is being honored for his numerous contributions towards translating state of the art knowledge in nutrition and medicine towards preventive measures that will result in saving hundreds of thousands of lives in developing countries. This includes several unpaid consultations to the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization, to create several key documents that have become the foundation for global policies on infant and young child feeding, as well as his leadership in establishing and now chairing the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group. It is estimated that more than 1 billion people suffer from zinc deficiency, yet without Dr. Brown’s commitment to bringing this problem to the world’s attention; its life-threatening consequences would likely go un-noticed. As one of his former graduate students wrote, “what has left the most clear mark on me… is his sincere devotion to the alleviation of human suffering associated with hunger and malnutrition, particularly when this affects the lives of infants and young children.” Dr. Ricardo Uauy, the current President of the International Union of Nutrition Scientists, who has known Dr. Brown since they were pediatric residents together in Boston, commented on Dr. Brown’s dedication: “It took commitment to abandon a secure position…at Johns Hopkins University and start his independent career at the Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This was a time when Bangladesh was politically unstable after gaining independence from Pakistan. Dr. Brown was there to contribute his talent to the emergent International Diarrheal Disease Research Center.” He took on his next challenge when he spent five years in Peru as a visiting scientist at the Instituto de Investigacion Nutricional. Dr. Uauy commented further that “I know of few other researchers …who have had as distinguished a record of scholarly public service.” Dr. Brown joined the UC Davis faculty in 1989, where he has continued to contribute his vision and insightful leadership in tackling one of the world’s most pressing problems. His unfaltering commitment to the poor, coupled with the highest scientific integrity, has made him a role model for students and faculty alike.
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