Nevin Stewart Scrimshaw (1918 -2013) was a public health physician and international nutritionist. Through his work and leadership in international health organizations, many advances were made to combat malnutrition in developing countries. He conducted research in amino acid protein metabolism, endemic goiter, and kwashiorkor.

He received his education at the following institutions: BA, Ohio Wesleyan University, 1938; MA (Biology), Harvard, 1939; Ph.D. (Physiology), Harvard, 1941; M.D., University of Rochester, 1945; M.P.H., Harvard University, 1959. He was an instructor in Embryology and Physiology at Ohio Wesleyan from 1941-1942. Later he was a Rockefeller Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Rochester from 1946-1947 and a Merck NRC Fellow from 1947-1949. He served as a consultant to the Pan American Sanitary Bureau from 1948-49, and then as a Regional Advisor on Nutrition to the Pan American Health Organization from 1949-1953. He also founded and was the director of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama from 1949-1961, later serving as its Consulting Director from 1961-1965 and as a consultant from 1965 onward. He became a professor of Human Nutrition and Chairman of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at M.I.T. from 1961-1979. He also served as director of the Clinical Research Center at M.I.T. from 1962-66 and 1979-1985. He served as a professor at Columbia University from 1976-1988 becoming professor Emeritus in 1988. He has received the following awards: Osborne & Mendel Award, 1960; Goldberger Award, 1969; and the World Food Prize, 1991. Dr. Scrimshaw also was a Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation from 1971-1983. Dr. Scrimshaw died in Plymouth, New Hampshire on February 8, 2013.