Donald B. McCormick

Donald Bruce McCormick (born 1932) is an American biochemist who researched nutrition. His research focused on vitamins that were soluble in water and the processes of metabolism. He was recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship and fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in 1966; he was editor of the Annual Review of Nutrition for ten years.

Early life and education Donald Bruce McCormick was born in 1932 in Front Royal, Virginia to parents Elizabeth and Jesse A. McCormick. His older siblings were James, Mary, and Edward, with younger sibling William. His father was a high school teacher who taught chemistry and biology and was also involved in the production of explosives like TNT. His family later moved to Tennessee and he attended high school in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He attended Vanderbilt University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1953 and a PhD under the advisorship of Oscar Touster in 1958. His doctoral thesis was about the metabolism of glucuronic acid, ribitol, and xylulose. He then completed a postdoctoral appointment with Esmond Emerson Snell at the University of California, Berkeley where he researched the metabolism of vitamin B6 and pyridoxal kinases. In 1960 he became an assistant professor at Cornell University; he was promoted in 1963 to associate professor and 1969 to professor. From 1979 to 1994 he was the chair of the department of biochemistry at Emory University. He retired from Emory in 1997, at which point he became a professor emeritus.

Awards and honors He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966 in the molecular and cellular biology division. Also in 1966 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.