Samuel Lepkovsky

Samuel Lepkovsky (1899—1984) was a Polish-born American nutritionist and scientist.

Lepkovsky was in born in Poland in 1899, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1908. He obtained B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Wisconsin in 1920, 1923, and 1925, respectively, working under the direction of Dr. Edwin B. Hart and collaborating with Dr. Harry Steenbock and Professor J. G. Halpin.

From 1919 to 1922, he was Assistant in Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Instructor from 1922 to 1926, and Research Associate

from 1926 to 1928. In 1928, he joined the staff of the University of California as Nutritionist, where he worked with Dr. Herbert McLean Evans until 1935, becoming Instructor in Experimental Biology in 1932. In 1935 he joined the Poultry Division in the College of Agriculture becoming Associate Professor in 1947 and Professor in 1945. In 1952 he served as an Agricultural Officer with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. In 1944, he served as a civilian with the U.S. Army, and from 1944 to 1945 was Consultant in the Office of the Quartermaster General, and in 1950 worked with the Office of Naval Research of the U.S. Navy.

The basis of the award involved his work on the vitamin B complex and his attempts to obtain information on the role of the nervous system in

nutrition. This work began during the War when he was in the Military Planning Division of the Office of the Quartermaster General attacking the problems of feeding front-line troops. The importance of the environment and the nervous system in nutrition became evident, and it became evident

that a dynamic interrelationship between the nervous system, the endocrine system, and internal bio-chemistry existed, and was involved in determining

appetite and satiety.

The Institute of Food Technologists, among other research, cited his demonstration that riboflavin was the B2-complex factor involved in hatchability. In this study, Lepkovsky used about one million pounds of whey to obtain about 30 grams of riboflavin. Out of this study came the

finding that riboflavin deficiency results in congenital anomalies, which was observed by Dr. L. W. Taylor when he broke and examined eggs that

did not hatch. This would appear to be the first work showing that congenital anomalies arise from nutritional diseases.

Lepkovsky died in 1984 at the age of 85.