Herbert Edmund Carter (September 25, 1910 – March 4, 2007)[1] was an American biochemist and educator.
He remained at Illinois as a member of the faculty and served as head of the department of chemistry and chemical engineering (1954–1967) and later as vice chancellor for academic affairs (1968–1971).
It was at the University of Illinois that Carter in collaboration with William C. Rose, determined the structure of threonine.
Following his retirement from Illinois in 1971, he moved to the University of Arizona and established the very successful Office of Interdisciplinary Programs.
[2] He recognized that the processes and systems underlying individual disciplines are remarkably similar and interdependent, and concluded that what lies in between disciplines—the area of interdisciplinarity—is where future developments, discoveries, and training programs would flourish.