Coluthur Gopalan

He was born in Salem, Tamil Nadu. He earned an M.D. from University of Madras, and Ph.D. and D.Sc. from University of London.[3][4] Starting his professional career in nutrition research at the Nutrition Research Laboratory (NRL) during the British period, he continued his journey over the next six decades. In the late 1950s, when NRL moved to Hyderabad and turned to NIN, Gopalan took over as director and expanded research to several key areas.

Gopalan's research led to a midday meal scheme for school children and a goiter prevention programme.[2] He founded the National Nutrition Foundation, which published Nutritive Value of Indian Foods.[2] He was a recipient of the civilian honours of the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.[5] He set up divisions for clinical research, biochemistry, bio-physics, endocrinology, analytical chemistry, food toxicology and the field units in the multi-disciplinary subject,nutritio.

National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB) which is product of his effort started the research to tackle problems such as protein energy malnutrition, Vitamin A deficiency, Phrynoderma, Lathyrism, fluorosis and Pellagra.

He was the director of indian council of Medical research( ICMR) there he expanded research into neglected communicable diseases and modernised the working of the council. Three new institutes — Malaria Research Institute; Vector Control Research Institute and Leprosy Research Institute were established to develop and implement preventive and management strategies for these diseases.

Gopalan's works on Indian foods also are commentable. he analysed over 500 Indian foods for their Nutritive Values and publied a detailed study report of that. This work was used for calculating dietary in-take of all nutrients. This made India the first developing country to have its own ‘recommended dietary allowances.’

“NIN today bears testimony to his genius as an architect and father of nutrition sciences in ndia. Research under his leadership formed the basis of major national nutrition programmes initiated in the 1970s such as ICDS and Massive Dose Vitamin-A and iron supplementation,” said R Hemalatha, director, NIN.

“Gopalan was a visionary institution builder. He viewed medical and nutrition science from a holistic perspective and always wanted to address them taking a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach. His contributions to medical science in general and nutrition science in particular are immense. He, in fact, brought nutrition to centre stage and was instrumental in putting it as an important driver in developmental plans and policies of the country,” said Balram Bhargava, director-general of ICMR. (India Science Wire)

• Coluthur Gopalan