Abstract
In his early career, Rainer Gross worked directly in the field settings of Peru, Brazil, and Southeast Asia. In his later career, he organized fieldwork from the comfort of his New York office at United Nations Children’s Fund. Both of these perspectives confronted him time and again with the need both to identify adequate tools in order to influence nutritional outcomes and to overcome the scarcity of adequate biomarkers to measure the outcomes of such interventions. The quest for methods of adequate nutritional intervention and outcome controls dovetails with the resulting view on current problems in nutrition, which is constantly changing in response to novel results. These processes move in never-ending cycles that are fueled, on the one hand, by the advance of knowledge and technology and, on the other hand, by the negative consequences of adverse economic, political, and increasingly also climatic conditions that determine crop yields and their distribution.
In order to keep up with such a broad scope of rapid developments, the scientific community is well advised to communicate closely. The Rainer Gross Prize is awarded for recent innovations in nutrition and health in developing countries reflecting the spirit of Dr Gross. It will foster the pursuit of innovative ideas and projects in nutrition and health in developing societies. In 2016, it was awarded for the fourth time on a biennial basis, to Dr Saurabh Mehta, whose prize lecture follows.
Looking back at the projects that motivated the awards over the past 6 years shows that the jurors have a knack for identifying and appreciating relevant developments in the field. In 2010, the nutritional dimensions of social projection networks in Central America and the reduction of stunting, anemia, and vitamin A deficiency in Peru were the basis for joint awards to Angela Cespedes and Aaron Lechtig, respectively. Two years later, in 2012, the use of zinc supplements to fight corresponding deficiencies (Kenneth Brown) or ameliorate diabetes mellitus (Manuel Ruz) was the basis for the award. In 2014, the importance of the influence of inflammation on the assessments of vitamin A status was recognized in the work of David Thurnham.
These three earlier awards addressed topics on the crest of innovation in nutritional science and public health. This year, Dr. Mehta is similarly recognized for his contributions to the Cornell Nutriphone, a novel approach to assessing the nutritional and inflammatory status photometrically, independent of the patients’ location, using the computational power of an ordinary, portable smartphone. We thank the jurors for their expertise, showing that a biennial prize is able to help keep the Rainer Gross creative spirit of innovative research alive.