Minnesota Starvation Experiment - Principal Investigators

Principal Investigators

Ancel Keys was the lead investigator of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. He was responsible for the general supervision of the activities in the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene and was directly responsible for the X-ray analysis and administrative work for the project. Keys founded the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene at the University of Minnesota in 1940 after leaving positions at Harvard’s Fatigue Laboratory and the Mayo Clinic. Starting in 1941, he served as a special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of War and worked with the Army to develop rations for troops in combat (K-rations). Keys served as Director for the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene for 26 years, and retired in 1972 after a distinguished 36-year career at the University of Minnesota.

Olaf Mickelsen was responsible for the chemical analyses conducted in the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene during the Starvation Study, and the daily dietary regime of the CPS subjects—including the supervision of the kitchen and its staff. During the study, he was an associate professor of biochemistry and physiological hygiene at the University of Minnesota and received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1939.

Henry Longstreet Taylor had the major responsibility of recruiting the 36 CPS volunteers used in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, maintaining the morale of the participants and their involvement in the study. During the study he collaborated with Austin Henschel in conducting the physical performance, respiration and postural tests. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1941 and joined the faculty at the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene, where he held a joint appointment with the Department of Physiology. His research concentrated on problems in cardiovascular physiology, temperature regulation, metabolism and nutrition, aging and cardiovascular epidemiology.

Austin Henschel shared the responsibility of screening the CPS volunteers with Taylor for selection in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment and, in addition, had charge of the blood morphology and scheduling all the tests and measurements of the subjects during the course of the study. He was a member of the faculty in the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene and the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Josef Brožek (1914–2004) was responsible for psychological studies during the Starvation Study, including the psychomotor tests, anthropometric measurements and statistical analysis of the results. Brožek received his PhD from Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1937. He emigrated to the United States in 1939 and joined the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene at the University of Minnesota in 1941, where he served in a succession of posts over a 17-year period. His research in the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene concerned malnutrition and behavior, visual illumination and performance, and aging.