Elmer Verner McCollum was born March 3, 1879 on his family farm near Fort Scott, Kansas; he had a younger brother, Burton. Eventually the family moved to Lawrence, Kan., where McCollum graduated from high school and enrolled at the University of Kansas.

Initially interested in becoming a physician, McCollum's interests quickly switched to organic chemistry. Completing his bachelors in 1903, he completed his masters in 1904. He received his doctorate from Yale in 1906. After a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Lafayette Mendel's lab, McCollum went on to work at the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station and began a lifelong career in the study of nutrition and its effects upon the body. In 1917 McCollum with Marguerite Davis discovered Vitamins A and B1. He later worked on research on other vitamins and wrote a regular column for McCall's Magazine on good nutrition.

McCollum won a variety of awards for his work and served in a variety of professional capacities, including as President of the American Society of Biological Chemists in 1927-1928. He was involved in several debates regarding human dietary policy.

McCollum joined the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1917, retiring professor emeritus in 1944. Elmer V. McCollum passed away on November 15, 1967.