Professor Edward Mellanby (1884 - 1955) discovered vitamin D and the role of the vitamin in preventing rickets in 1919.

He was professor of pharmacology at the University of Sheffield, and consultant physician at the Royal Infirmary in that city. He would serve as the secretary of the Medical Research Council from 1933 to 1949. He was a fellow of the Royal Society.

Publications include Nutrition and Disease - the Interaction of Clinical and Experimental Work (Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1934). In the work, he writes extensively on vitamin deficiency.