Roy Lee Walford, M. D. (June 29, 1924 – April 27, 2004) was a professor of pathology at University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, a leading advocate of calorie restriction for life extension and health improvement, and a crew member of Biosphere 2.
Walford is credited with significantly furthering aging research by his discovery that laboratory mice, when fed a diet that restricted their caloric intake by 50% yet maintaining nutritional requirements, almost doubled their expected life span.
His honors and awards include:[1] Walford and his work were featured in print in dozens of articles in popular publications such as Omni, Discover, and Scientific American.
In 1947, while on vacation during medical school, Walford and Albert Hibbs, a mathematics graduate student, used statistical analysis of biased roulette wheels to "break the bank" in Reno.
"[5] Incorporated in California as Gerontix, the company was to sell supplements intended to improve health and increase life span.
Before the resolution of the lawsuit, the Gerontix MaxiLife[6] products were brought to market and sold poorly, partly because of the lackluster sales of Walford's book.
[10] In November of the first year the crew decided to open a cache of emergency food supplies grown outside of the bubble to supplement their meager diets.
[11] At age 79, Roy Walford died of respiratory failure as a complication of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
According to Walford's friend and colleague, Kathleen Hall, his diagnosis of ALS came as a result of her urging him to see a physician when she noticed "the strangeness in Roy's gait.
In his book Eternity Soup: Inside the Quest to End Aging, Greg Critser says that Walford's "consumption of marijuana was legendary.