Dr. Joe McCord
Dr. Joe McCord, Chief Science Officer at
LifeVantage Corporation, was always interested in how things work.
When he was boy, he got a chemistry set for Christmas--and the rest
is history!
He planned to become a chemical engineer but in his junior year
of college he became interested in biochemistry. A professor
encouraged and directed him to graduate studies in biochemistry,
and while at Duke University, as a 21-year-old graduate student, he
"stumbled onto something very, very important that directed the
rest of his career."
He remembers April 3, 1968: going home, sitting down and
realizing that 10 years of observations could fit into a logical,
rational framework. It was his "ah-ha" moment. The next day he
designed an experiment to test it. Regarding that moment in the lab
when he made his world-renowned discovery he said, "Science doesn't
usually work from a scientist saying 'I have a grandiose idea' and
the scientist setting about to prove it. Rather, it's years
of stumbling around, making observations and trying to piece
together facts; sharing what is learned, and sooner or later, it
becomes meaningful."
Dr. McCord's doctoral dissertation was the discovery of
superoxide dismutase (SOD), an enzyme that eliminates free
radicals. About co-discovering SOD with Dr. Irwin Fridovich in his
20s he said, "Youth is sometimes underestimated." For that work,
Dr. McCord received the Elliott Cresson Medal, the highest award
given by the Franklin Institute.
Dr. McCord received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry
from Rhodes College; a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Duke University;
served as a junior faculty member at Duke University's Department
of Medicine; as a professor and chairman of the Department of
Biochemistry at the University of South Alabama and its College of
Medicine; and as a Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry, Biophysics,
Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Immunity at the University of
Colorado at Denver. He serves as the head of the Division of
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Webb-Waring Institute;
has been a member of the LifeVantage Corporation Board of Directors
since 2006; served as LifeVantage Director of Science from
2004-2007, on the LifeVantage Scientific Advisory Board; and was
appointed Chief Science Officer in 2011.
Dr. McCord has published articles in numerous scientific
journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine. He
received the Discovery Award from the Society for Free Radical
Biology and Medicine (SFRBM). He received a lifetime achievement
award from the Oxygen Society for outstanding contributions to the
field of free radical biology and medicine. He chaired the Third
International Conference on Superoxide Dismutases held at the
Institut Pasteur in Paris in 2004, as well as earlier conferences
in the series, and he is Honorary President of the International
Society of Antioxidants in Nutrition and Health.