Jean Mayer (February 19, 1920-January 1, 1993) was a renowned French-American nutritionist and the tenth president of Tufts University from 1976 to 1992. During his lifetime, Mayer was known as a leading expert and activist on hunger issues. February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Dietitians are experts in food and nutrition. ... Tufts University is a private university located in Medford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. ... Hunger is applied literally to the need or craving for food; it can also be applied metaphorically to cravings of other sorts. ...

Mayer was the son of French physiologists Jeanne Eugenie Mayer and Andre Mayer, one of the founding members of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. After obtaining bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Paris, Mayer served as an officer in the French Army during World War II, receiving fourteen military decorations for his heroism. After being captured by the German Army, Mayer escaped from prison and used forged papers to get into the United States. The United Nations, or UN, is an international organization established in 1945 and now made up of 191 states. ... Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations programs seek to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living; to improve the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of food and agricultural products; to promote rural development; and, by these means, to eliminate hunger. ... The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The historic University of Paris (French: Université de Paris) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganized as 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII). ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was by far the bloodiest, most expensive, and most significant war in...

After the war, Mayer earned doctorates from Yale University and the Sorbonne, while serving as a Food and Agriculture Organization nutrition officer in Washington, DC. Upon completion of his doctoral work, Mayer became a member of the Department of Nutrition of the Harvard School of Public Health, where he taught for 26 years. In 1976, he was appointed the tenth president of Tufts University in Massachusetts, where he proceeded to establish the first graduate school of nutrition in the United States. Shortly after being appointed Chancellor of the University, Mayer died of a heart attack at age 72. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations programs seek to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living; to improve the production, processing, marketing, and distribution of food and agricultural products; to promote rural development; and, by these means, to eliminate hunger. ... The Harvard School of Public Health is Harvard Universitys school of public health. ... Tufts University is a private university located in Medford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. ...

Work on Hunger

Following in the footsteps of his father, Mayer devoted much of his time and attention to hunger issues. Many of the 750 articles and ten books he wrote were concerned with issues such as famine and nutrition policies. Mayer also served as an advisor on food issues to three U.S. Presidents and U.S. Department of State, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations' Childrens Fund. He was chairman of the 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health, the work of which paved the way for the subsequent establishment of the food stamp program and the expansion of reduced-price school lunch programs for poor children. The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, equivalent to foreign ministries in other countries. ... The WHO flag: similar to the flag of the United Nations, augmented with the symbolic staff and serpent of Asklepios, Greek god of medicine and healing. ...

Mayer was politically active in other realms, as well. He was the first scientist to speak out against the use of herbicides in the Vietnam War, and he helped sponsor scholarship programs that sent non-white South Africans to mixed-race universities in their home country.

External Links

Biography of Jean Mayer