The Rowett Research Institute

Abstract

In 1912 it was provisionally arranged between the Development Commission and the Scottish Education Department that an Institute for Research in Animal Nutrition should be established in Scotland under the supervision of a Joint Committee representing the North of Scotland College of Agriculture and the University of Aberdeen. This Joint Committee was constituted in 1913 and research in animal nutrition was begun in April 1914, when Dr J. B. Orr—now Lord Boyd-Orr, the first official appointed by the Committee—commenced work in temporary accommodation obtained in the Agricultural and Physiological Departments of the University, surely a fitting cradle. Since 1946 the Governing Body has been expanded to include persons nominated by the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Agricultural Research Council and the Medical Research Council. Its chairman is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen. Under the direction of Orr the work grew, and through the generosity of the late Dr John Quiller Rowett there were erected central buildings thereafter called the Rowett Research Institute, which were opened in 1922. The Duthie Experimental Stock Farm, which extends to over 500 acres, was also made possible through a benefaction to commemorate a world-famous Shorthorn breeder.