UAB Creates Award to Honor Pioneering Nutrition Scientist

UAB’s (University of Alabama at Birmingham) School of Health Related Professions is establishing the Howerde E. Sauberlich Award for Excellence in Research in nutrition sciences in honor of late scientist Howerde E. Sauberlich. The university’s goal is to create an endowment to fund annual awards recognizing outstanding research in nutrition sciences by UAB graduate students in Sauberlich’s name.

June 11, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — UAB’s (University of Alabama at Birmingham) School of Health Related Professions is establishing the Howerde E. Sauberlich Award for Excellence in Research in nutrition sciences in honor of late scientist Howerde E. Sauberlich. The university’s goal is to create an endowment to fund annual awards recognizing outstanding research in nutrition sciences by UAB graduate students in Sauberlich’s name.

Howerde Sauberlich was a pioneer in micronutrient research. His landmark human vitamin A and vitamin C experiments are classics in the nutrition literature. His discovery of 5-formyltetrahydrofolate has made substantial impact on cancer chemotherapy when used with methotrexate and 5-flourouracil.

A native of Wisconsin, Sauberlich had already enjoyed a long and distinguished career when he was recruited to join the fledging department of nutrition sciences at UAB by Dr. Charles. E. Butterworth in 1982. He was an active member of the faculty until his death in 2001.

“Howerde Sauberlich was a giant in the field of micronutrient research,” says Harold Jones, Ph.D., the dean of the School of Health Related Professions. “Our goal is to perpetuate his memory with the creation of this endowed award, to provide funding for young scientists to continue in Dr. Sauberlich’s footsteps.”

While at UAB, Sauberlich’s research supported theories of folate deficiency as a risk factor for cancer and the role of nutrient deficiencies in the progression of HIV to AIDS in HIV-infected patients. He published the second edition of Laboratory Tests for the Assessment of Nutritional Status and was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition in 1986.

Sauberlich received many awards during his long career, including the Mead-Johnson Award for vitamin B-complex research, the McLester Award for research in human nutrition, the Borden Award, the Canadian Clinical Chemistry Society Award and the Conrad A. Elvehjem Award for Public Service in Nutrition.

For more information about making a contribution to the endowment, contact the dean’s office at the UAB School of Health Related Professions, Webb Nutrition Sciences Building 616, 1530 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL, (205) 934-4159.