Edward Bright Vedder (June 28, 1878 – January 30, 1952[1]) was a U.S. Army physician, a noted researcher on deficiency diseases, and a medical educator.

He studied beriberi, a deficiency disease affecting the peripheral nerves, and established an extract of rice bran as its proper treatment.

Williams set out to isolate the ingredient responsible, but his work was deferred with a career change to chemistry for Bell Telephone Company.

In 1913, Vedder returned to the United States and was appointed assistant professor of pathology at the Army Medical School in Washington D.C.

He discovered that emetine, the active ingredient of the ancient emetic ipecacuanha, is an amoebicide and therefore effective against amoebic dysentery.

[3] In 1919, Vedder became director of the Southern Department Laboratory at Fort Sam Houston, Texas and later chief of medical research (1922–25) at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland.