Irwin Gunsalus

Academic career Gunsalus taught bacteriology from 1940 to 1947 at Cornell University. There he studied issues of food safety and disease risk. From 1947 to 1950, he was a professor of bacteriology at Indiana University.

In 1950, he took a faculty position as professor of microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, shifting his speciality in 1955 to head the biochemistry department until 1966. While there, he co-authored The Bacteria: A Treatise on Structure and Function with Roger Y. Stanier, a five-volume work that served as a basic textbook for scientists entering the field. By the 1970s, other researchers and hospitals had begun to use lipoic acid for the treatment of chronic liver disease. It has since been used experimentally to treat pancreatic cancer and its use as a dietary supplement to prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease has been proposed.

Post-academic career After retiring from the University of Illinois in 1982, Gunsalus was named the founding director of the United Nations International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, which is responsible for increasing international cooperation in the development and use of genetic engineering and biotechnology in issues related to development. He oversaw the establishment of research centers in Trieste, Italy and in New Delhi, India.

Gunsalus died at age 96 on October 25, 2008, at his home in Andalusia, Alabama, of congestive heart failure.