Dr. Jean Mayer

Dr. Jean Mayer
A world-renowned nutritionist, publishing more than 750 scientific papers and 10 books, Jean Mayer advised three U.S. Presidents (Nixon, Ford, Carter), the US Congress, the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations' Children's Fund and the U.S. Secretary of State. He helped establish and expand the food stamp, school lunch and other national and international nutrition program and organized the 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health.

Scholarship, research and teaching must be dedicated to solving the most pressing problems facing the world.
--Dr. Jean Mayer, 1920-1993, President and Chancellor,
Tufts University

In 1966, Dr. Mayer was the first scientist to speak out against the use of herbicides in the Vietnam War. In 1969, he led a mission to war-torn Biafra to assess health and nutrition conditions. In 1970, he organized an international symposium on famine, which produced the first comprehensive document on how nutrition and relief operations should be handled in time of disaster and was the first to suggest that using starvation as a political tool was a violation of human rights and should be outlawed.

Dr. Mayer's life and productive career have been dedicated to the service of mankind
--Former President Jimmy Carter

For his service in World War II, he was awarded 14 decorations, including three Croix de Guerre, the Resistance Medal and the Cross of the Knight of the Legion of Honor. Among his 23 honorary degrees and numerous awards, he was the recipient of the Presidential End Hunger Award and the President's Environment and Conservation Challenge Award.

As the 10th president of Tufts University, Dr. Mayer created the nation's first graduate school of nutrition, established New England's only veterinary school and the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, and co-founded the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences and the Center for Environmental Management. As chair of the New England Board of Higher Education, he created scholarships that enabled non-white South Africans to go to mixed-race universities in their own country.

"...Mayer moved universities as social institutions in new directions and toward the assumption of larger responsibilities. He saw them as instruments for improving society and the world environment... Those who knew him will miss his quick grasp of complicated and often-conflicting material, the clarity of this insight, his courage in tackling formidable tasks and his unfailing charm."
The Boston Globe

EPIIC established the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award in 1993 to honor the work and life of Dr. Jean Mayer - President and Chancellor of Tufts University, 1976-93 - a great friend of EPIIC