- Email: [email protected]
David Kritchevsky
Obituary
David Kritchevsky Eminent nutrition scientist and campaigner against junk science. Born on Jan 25, 1920, in Kharkov, Russia, he died on Nov 20, 2006, in Philadelphia, PA, USA, aged 86 years. Candid and irreverent in the face what he considered junk science, David Kritchevsky was unafraid of flouting the political orthodoxy when it came to nutritional truths and myths. And during the few months leading up to his death, New York City’s plan to ban transfats in restaurant food was one of his particular vexations. “He thought the detrimental effects of transfats had been exaggerated and was worried that more saturated fats would be used as a substitute”, explains David Klurfeld, a former postdoctoral student of Kritchevsky’s, who is now the human nutrition national programme leader at the US Department of Agriculture Research Service, MD, USA. So it is something of an irony that just a fortnight after Kritchevsky’s death, the ban was approved. “That noise you just heard?”, says longtime colleague and friend Jon Story, a professor at Purdue University, IN, USA, “that’s Dave rolling over in his grave”. Kritchevsky’s commitment to exposing pseudoscientific thinking was not the only thing that made him an unusual scientist. He was known for his brilliant communication skills. Elizabeth Whelan, President of the American Council on Science and Health, a consumer education organisation, who knew Kritchevsky for 30 years, recalls that he was so comfortable in front of a microphone that he once did an 22
entire radio show by himself when clashing appointments meant she had to cancel their arrangements. “I said I can’t interview you, I have to run. He said don’t worry I’ll interview myself. I came back an hour later and he was still going. How many prominent scientists are there that could do that?” Kritchevsky died while still Caspar Wistar Scholar at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, an institution he had been closely connected to for 50 years. His distinguished career started in the 1940s when, after earning a degree, masters, and doctorate in chemistry from the University of Chicago, IL, USA, he worked as a chemist in two laboratories in his university town. An opportunity to work for a Nobel laureate in Switzerland took him to Europe, and it was during this postdoctoral assignment that he developed an interest in cholesterol, which was to form the basis of his most important scientific contributions. With almost 30 awards and honours to his name, Kritchevsky was an eminent scientist by any measure. He had a great influence on investigations into the role of lipids, dietary fibre, and dietary protein in artherosclerosis, espoused the idea of using purified diets to model artherosclerosis in animals, and prompted much of the early work into the effect of diet on risk of cancer, including the beneficial effect of caloric restriction. Colleagues ascribe Kritchevsky’s varied contributions to his ability to keep a broad perspective, rather than specialising on a specific enzyme or dietary pathway. He was always looking for the connections between things, says Story. And, according to Whelan, this broad view was what made him such a good communicator. “He never lost perspective about the role of cholesterol and the role of diet in heart disease. Diet is a relatively small player in causing heart disease compared with cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and genetics. This was unique about him”, she says. As an avid reader, with a passion for poetry and music, Story remembers Kritchevsky as having enthusiasm for almost everything. “He was what I think of as a real intellectual”, he says. He frequently used his diverse interests to entertain his students by writing songs to help them remember chemical pathways—he once set the synthesis of cholesterol to the tune of Jingle Bells and made another song about the Krebs cycle. Kritchevsky also amused his colleagues with his wit. “I have a list of Kritchevskyisms. One of my favourites is ‘We tortured the data until they confessed!’ It sums up Dave’s view that statistics should confirm the obvious”, said Klurfeld. But for Klurfeld and Story, it was Kritchevsky’s humanity and compassion for people that truly set him apart. “He believed everyone deserves to be treated with respect”, explains Story. Klurfeld adds: “I am sure that his work is going to be a lasting legacy, but I believe that his personality is going to be a separate legacy for everyone that knew him.”
Hannah Brown [email protected]
www.thelancet.com Vol 369 January 6, 2007
David Kritchevsky Eminent nutrition scientist and campaigner against junk science. Born on Jan 25, 1920, in Kharkov, Russia, he died on Nov 20, 2006, in Philadelphia, PA, USA, aged 86 years. Candid and irreverent in the face what he considered junk science, David Kritchevsky was unafraid of flouting the political orthodoxy when it came to nutritional truths and myths. And during the few months leading up to his death, New York City’s plan to ban transfats in restaurant food was one of his particular vexations. “He thought the detrimental effects of transfats had been exaggerated and was worried that more saturated fats would be used as a substitute”, explains David Klurfeld, a former postdoctoral student of Kritchevsky’s, who is now the human nutrition national programme leader at the US Department of Agriculture Research Service, MD, USA. So it is something of an irony that just a fortnight after Kritchevsky’s death, the ban was approved. “That noise you just heard?”, says longtime colleague and friend Jon Story, a professor at Purdue University, IN, USA, “that’s Dave rolling over in his grave”. Kritchevsky’s commitment to exposing pseudoscientific thinking was not the only thing that made him an unusual scientist. He was known for his brilliant communication skills. Elizabeth Whelan, President of the American Council on Science and Health, a consumer education organisation, who knew Kritchevsky for 30 years, recalls that he was so comfortable in front of a microphone that he once did an 22
entire radio show by himself when clashing appointments meant she had to cancel their arrangements. “I said I can’t interview you, I have to run. He said don’t worry I’ll interview myself. I came back an hour later and he was still going. How many prominent scientists are there that could do that?” Kritchevsky died while still Caspar Wistar Scholar at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, an institution he had been closely connected to for 50 years. His distinguished career started in the 1940s when, after earning a degree, masters, and doctorate in chemistry from the University of Chicago, IL, USA, he worked as a chemist in two laboratories in his university town. An opportunity to work for a Nobel laureate in Switzerland took him to Europe, and it was during this postdoctoral assignment that he developed an interest in cholesterol, which was to form the basis of his most important scientific contributions. With almost 30 awards and honours to his name, Kritchevsky was an eminent scientist by any measure. He had a great influence on investigations into the role of lipids, dietary fibre, and dietary protein in artherosclerosis, espoused the idea of using purified diets to model artherosclerosis in animals, and prompted much of the early work into the effect of diet on risk of cancer, including the beneficial effect of caloric restriction. Colleagues ascribe Kritchevsky’s varied contributions to his ability to keep a broad perspective, rather than specialising on a specific enzyme or dietary pathway. He was always looking for the connections between things, says Story. And, according to Whelan, this broad view was what made him such a good communicator. “He never lost perspective about the role of cholesterol and the role of diet in heart disease. Diet is a relatively small player in causing heart disease compared with cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and genetics. This was unique about him”, she says. As an avid reader, with a passion for poetry and music, Story remembers Kritchevsky as having enthusiasm for almost everything. “He was what I think of as a real intellectual”, he says. He frequently used his diverse interests to entertain his students by writing songs to help them remember chemical pathways—he once set the synthesis of cholesterol to the tune of Jingle Bells and made another song about the Krebs cycle. Kritchevsky also amused his colleagues with his wit. “I have a list of Kritchevskyisms. One of my favourites is ‘We tortured the data until they confessed!’ It sums up Dave’s view that statistics should confirm the obvious”, said Klurfeld. But for Klurfeld and Story, it was Kritchevsky’s humanity and compassion for people that truly set him apart. “He believed everyone deserves to be treated with respect”, explains Story. Klurfeld adds: “I am sure that his work is going to be a lasting legacy, but I believe that his personality is going to be a separate legacy for everyone that knew him.”
Hannah Brown [email protected]
www.thelancet.com Vol 369 January 6, 2007