Abstract
This year the international nutrition community bid farewell to Noel Solomons, a beloved colleague, mentor and friend. We have been touched by the heartfelt tributes and memorials written by our colleagues at the Micronutrient Forum, 1 the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2 the International Union of Nutritional Sciences 3 and others, and we were proud to publish a dedication to Noel 4 authored by Dr. Manuel Ruz in our latest Food and Nutrition Bulletin supplement, Micronutrients in Latin America: Current state and research. 5
Noel’s Perspective on Emerging Micronutrient Deficiencies in Latin America and the Caribbean 6 in that supplement was typically bold, rigorous, and provocative. It adds to an incredible bibliography of 600 indexed publications as well as numerous edited books and book chapters. In the Food and Nutrition Bulletin alone he published 45 articles between 1987 and 2024, including his most recent, regrettably posthumous, publication. As Editor of this journal from 2017 to 2020, Noel hosted our year-long 40th anniversary celebration during which he invited global experts to produce a unique series of forward-looking “review commentaries” in which prognostications of future directions for the field are diligently grounded in past research.
Like many, I met Noel in the classroom. He was a physically towering figure, always garbed in brightly colored, woven Guatemalan fabrics even in the depth of a gloomy Boston winter. He had an erudite and dry sense of humor that flowed even during his lectures. The slight smile he would bestow if you caught one of his jokes as they flew by was his equivalent of a gold star. And I do remember that first lecture clearly: a challenging and even inflammatory discussion of linear growth. Many years later, he revisited and updated some of the concepts in an engaging review commentary for our 40th anniversary.
Also, like many, I considered Noel to be a mentor during the years we worked together. He believed one of the most important roles of an academic researcher was to help young scientists develop not only their technical skills but also a sense of purpose in their work. Noel was an informal member of my committee as I wrote my PhD, and he more than anyone was the figure in the background constantly prodding, instigating, interrogating: “Why does this matter?” As an editor, he passed along to me a belief that all research by emergent scholars deserves careful consideration and a personal response; he approached each submission with the belief that emerging scholars deserved not just critique, but encouragement and guidance to refine their ideas and make meaningful contributions to the field.
Our Editor Emeritus Irv Rosenberg recently noted, during a moving seminar at Tufts University 7 honoring Noel’s memory and legacy, that even at Noel’s most demanding, his mentees described him as deeply supportive, someone who pushed them to achieve their best. Embedded in this was also a profound sense of social justice. He was a consummately rigorous scientist, and also an activist. Noel held these apparently contradictory sides in careful balance, believing that activism could help to resist the realities and assumptions of the world around us, including systemic injustices in the practice and application of science. As we seek to communicate complex scientific findings in the face of public discourse that feels increasingly fractured, polarized, and politicized, we might all benefit from some of Noel’s brand of detached scientific rigor, coupled with activism rooted in social (and scientific) justice.
The editors of the Food and Nutrition Bulletin, with the support of our publisher, Sage Journals, have collected Noel’s catalog of contributions in an open access online anthology. From his Vision of Research on Human Growth to Carrots and Dietary Vitamin A Adequacy and beyond, we invite readers to revisit Noel’s publications and join us in remembering his contributions to the field. Read Noel Solomons’ complete Food and Nutrition Bulletin contributions: Noel Solomons’ Legacy: Remembering His Contributions to FNB. 8