{{Short description|American physiological chemist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Russell Henry Chittenden | image = Russell_H_Chittenden.jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1856|2|18|mf=y}} | birth_place = New Haven, Connecticut, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1943|12|26|1856|2|18|mf=y}} | death_place = New Haven, Connecticut, US | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | ethnicity = | field = Chemistry | work_institution = Yale University<br>Columbia University<br>United States National Research Council | alma_mater = | doctoral_advisor = Wilhelm Kühne | doctoral_students = Lafayette Mendel | known_for = | author_abbreviation_bot = | author_abbreviation_zoo = | prizes = | religion = | footnotes = }} '''Russell Henry Chittenden''' (18 February 1856 – 26 December 1943) was an American physiological chemist. He conducted pioneering research in the biochemistry of digestion and nutrition.
==Early life and education== He was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1856, graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1875, studied in Heidelberg in 1878-79, and received his doctorate at Yale in physiological chemistry in 1880. He was of English ancestry, his first ancestor in America being Major William Chittenden, an officer in the English army, who, having resigned, came to America from Cranbrook, Kent, with his wife, Joanne Sheaffe, in 1639, and settled in Guilford Connecticut. Ancestors of the professor on both his father's and his mother's side fought in the Revolutionary War. <ref>Men of Mark in Connecticut: Ideals of American Life Told in Biographies and Autobiographies of Eminent Living Americans, Volume 1 page 116</ref>
==Career== He was professor of physiological chemistry at Yale from 1882 to 1922. He was director of the Sheffield Scientific School from 1898-1922. He was also professor of physiology at the Yale School of Medicine starting in 1900. From 1898 to 1903 he was also a lecturer on physiological chemistry at Columbia University, New York. He was a founding member of the American Physiological Society in 1887 and served as its president from 1895 to 1904.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.the-aps.org/fm/presidents/Chittenden.html |title=Russell Henry Chittenden |publisher=American Physiological Society |website=Presidents |accessdate=22 March 2015 |quote=3rd APS President (1896-1904) }}</ref> He was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1904, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1904&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-06-28|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
He was the author of ''Digestive Proteolysis'' and ''Physiological Economy in Nutrition'' (New York, 1905). During World War I, Professor Chittenden was a member of the Advisory Committee on Food Utilization and also a member of the Executive Committee of the National Research Council. He is often called the "father of American biochemistry." His home in New Haven is a National Historic Landmark.
Chittenden advocated a low-protein diet.<ref>Gilman, Sander L. (2007). ''Diets and Dieting: A Cultural Encyclopedia''. Routledge. p. 60. {{ISBN|978-0-415-97420-2}}.</ref> He wrote, " If through years and generations of habit we have become addicted to the use of undue quantities of proteid foods, quantities way beyond the physiological requirements of the body, then we have to consider the possibility that this excess of daily food may be more or less responsible for many diseased conditions, which might be obviated by more careful observance of the true physiological needs of the body."<ref>''Physiological Economy in Nutrition'', page viii</ref>
== Russell Henry Chittenden Prize == An annual tradition during Yale College Class Day, the '''Russell Henry Chittenden Prize''' is "awarded to the graduating senior in the natural sciences or in mathematics who ranks highest in scholarship."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Russell Henry Chittenden (1926) {{!}} Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life |url=https://secretary.yale.edu/services-resources/lectureships-fellowships-prizes/scholarship-or-character-prizes/russell-henry |access-date=2023-07-23 |website=secretary.yale.edu}}</ref> This award was originally given to the highest ranking graduate earning a degree in the Bachelor of the Sciences. Thornton Leigh Page, Andrew M. Gleason, Murray Gerstenhaber, Howard Zimmerman, Guido Calabresi, Jonathan Wahl, Edward Hundert, and Nicholas Christakis have received this award.
==Publications==
*[https://archive.org/details/physiologicaleco00chitiala/page/n5 ''Physiological Economy in Nutrition''] (1904)<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1126/science.22.563.464|title=Physiological Economy in Nutrition|year=1905|last1=Lusk|first1=G.|author-link=Graham Lusk|journal=Science|volume=22|issue=563|pages=464–465|pmid=29811005|pmc=5188015}} [https://www.science.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.22.563.465 p. 465]</ref> *[https://archive.org/details/nutritionofman00chitrich/page/n5 ''The Nutrition of Man''] (1907)<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''The Nutrition of Man'' by Russell Henry Chittenden|journal=The Athenaeum|issue=4159|date=July 13, 1907|page=45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__I_PcOFSw8C&pg=PA45}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== Sources== * [http://www.med.yale.edu/library/exhibits/yalemed2/ Chittenden at Yale Medical School] * G.R. C., 1944. Russell Henry Chittenden, February 18, 1856 - December 26, 1943. An appreciation. ''The Journal of Nutrition, 28 (1), 2-6''. [http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/28/1/2.pdf Article] * Lewis, H.B., 1944. Russell Henry Chittenden, (1856 - 1943). ''The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 153 (2), 339-342.'' [http://www.jbc.org/cgi/reprint/153/2/339.pdf Article] * Vickery, H.B., 1944. Russell Henry Chittenden, 1856 - 1943. ''National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, 24, 59-104.'' [http://books.nap.edu/html/biomems/rchittenden.pdf Article]
==External links== * {{Cite PSM|wstitle=Sketch of Russell H. Chittenden|month-and-year=May 1898|volume=53}} * [http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/chittenden-russell-h-1.pdf National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir]
{{Presidents of the American Society of Naturalists}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chittenden, Russell Henry}} Category:American food writers Category:Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Category:Scientists from New Haven, Connecticut Category:American chemists Category:1856 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Diet food advocates Category:Yale School of Medicine faculty Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:Presidents of the American Society of Naturalists