Casimir Funk

Kazimierz Funk (1884-1967) also known as Casimir Funk was a Polish biochemist, born in Warsaw. He studied in Berlin and Switzerland, worked in Paris, Berlin, London, then in America, then he returned to Poland, and after the outbreak of World War II he finally moved to America.

After reading article of Eijkman that people eating rice are less vulnerable to beri-beri, he tried to isolate the substance responsible and he succeeded around 1912. Because that substance contained an amine group, he called it vitamine (vitamin). It was niacin nicotinic acid, vitamin B1 (Thiamin). He put forward the hypothesis that other diseases, like scurvy, could also be cured by vitamins.