Cesar Ricardo Bressani Castignoli, PhD (September 28, 1926 – January 30, 2015) was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala and his parents were immigrant Italians. He received his BS (1948) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Dayton, his MS (1951) in Biochemistry from Iowa State University, and his PhD (1956) in Biochemistry focusing on Food Science from Purdue University. He worked at the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) for one year as the Head of the Food Analysis Laboratory before they funded his PhD studies. Dr. Castignoli went on to develop the all-vegetal protein/nutritional supplement, Incaparina, used to combat nutritional deficits found in rural areas of Central America. Upon receiving his PhD, he accepted a position at INCAP as the Head of the Division of Agriculture and Science and Food.
At INCAP he developed Incaparina, a nutritional supplement made from corn, soy, cottonseed, and yeast. This mixture was used to enrich many Central American foods, such as infant and toddler foods, to combat growing nutritional deficiencies. He also used ingredients and foods specific to his Mayan heritage to address local concerns and ensure their adoption. In 1983, he became a founding member of the World Academy of Sciences and subsequently founded the Center for the Study of Food Science and Technology at the University of the Valley of Guatemala in 1998.
He received a multitude of international food and nutrition awards, alongside Guatemala’s Grand Cross “Order of the Quetzal,” Mexico’s award for Science and Technology, and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science. Throughout the majority of his career, until his death in 2015, he served as Associate Editor for Food Science and Technology in the Nutrition Bulletin.
REFERENCES:
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26121705/
- https://dbpedia.org/page/Ricardo_Bressani
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0379572115587499
- https://www.scribd.com/document/444942316/Cesar-Ricardo-Bressani-Castignoli
IMAGE SOURCE:
The World Academy of Sciences
