Dr. Joe McCord, formulator of Protandim, was always interested in how things work. When he was 10 or 12 years old, he got a chemistry set for Christmas and... the rest is history!

He had originally planned to be a chemical engineer, but in his junior year of college 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 on to something very, very important" that directed the rest of his career.

He remembers April 3, 1968, well-going home, sitting down, and realizing that 10 years of observations could fit into a logical, rational framework. That was his "aha" 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. Regarding co-discovering SOD with Dr. Irwin Fridovich in his 20s he said, "Youth is sometimes underestimated."

For this work, Dr. McCord received the Elliott Cresson Medal, the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The Franklin Institute Awards are among the oldest and most prestigious comprehensive science awards in the world and honor the greatest men and women of science, engineering, and technology. The Elliott Cresson Medal, first awarded in 1875, has also been presented to Marie and Pierre Curie, Alexander Graham Bell, Orville Wright, and Henry Ford, putting Dr. McCord in the same company as some of the truly greatest minds of science history has ever witnessed.

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, served as LifeVantage Corporation's Director of Science from 2004-2007, and has been a member of the LifeVantage Corporation Board of Directors since 2006.

Dr. McCord has also 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.

Read more about Dr. McCord from Forbes here

The Elliott Cresson medal was the highest award given by The Franklin Institute. The endowed award was to be "for some discovery in the Arts and Sciences, or for the invention or improvement of some useful machine, or for some new process or combination of materials in manufactures, or for ingenuity skill or perfection in workmanship."

The medal was first awarded in 1875 and a total of 268 Elliott Cresson Medals were given out during the award's lifetime. Other recipients of the award include Marie and Pierre Curie (for the discovery of radium), Alexander Graham Bell (for electrical transmission of articulate speech), Orville Wright (for the art and science of aviation), Henry Ford (for revolutionizing the automobile industry and industrial leadership), and Henry Eyring (for quantum mechanical calculations of activation energies.) For over 185 years, The Franklin Institute has honored the greatest men and women of science, engineering, and technology. The Franklin Institute awards are among the oldest and most prestigious comprehensive science awards in the world and identify individuals whose great innovation has benefitted humanity, advanced science, launched new fields of inquiry, and deepened our understanding of the universe.

The inventor of Protandim®, Dr. Joe McCord, is one of the few recipients of this prestigious award. Find out more about the Elliott Cresson medal here.

McCord & Montel