Life and Career
The only son of a mariner and homemaker, Young was born in Rhyl, Wales but spent much of his youth during the years of World War II at his uncle's farm in the Sherwood Forest area of Nottinghamshire.
Young began his scientific studies at Reading University, Wales, in animal husbandry, before emigrating to California. In 1960, as an agriculture graduate student in the old Home Economics department at the University of California, Davis, Young gradually became interested in problems as they related to human nutrition. Then, toward the end of his period there, he came across the September, 1964, issue of Scientific American, an edition devoted to food and agriculture, which contained an article written by Nevin Scrimshaw, Institute Professor at MIT, who was to become a lifelong mentor, colleague and hero to Young. (In 1991, Scrimshaw was awarded the World Food Prize for his lifelong dedication to alleviating hunger and malnutrition in developing nations.)
"His article on the global problems of protein energy malnutrition really attracted me," says Young. "So I wrote to him and asked if I could work with him. He said 'yes', so we set off on a scientific journey together which has been very exciting."
Upon arriving at MIT, Young was attracted to more than Scrimshaw's science. Young was likewise charmed by Janice, Scrimshaw's secretary, to whom Young was married for 37 years. "My wife has been an essential reason for any of my possible successes."
Read more about this topic: Vernon R. Young
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or career:
“Toiling,rejoicing,sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees its close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a nights repose.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18091882)
“Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.”
—Douglas MacArthur (18801964)