Autor: M S Swaminathan

Professor M S Swaminathan has been acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the twenty most influential Asians of the 20th century. He has been described by the United Nations Environment Programme as „the Father of Economic Ecology” because of his leadership of the Evergreen Revolution movement in agriculture; and by Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary General of the United Nations, as „a living legend who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction”.A plant geneticist by training, Prof. Swaminathan”s contributions to the agricultural renaissance of India have led to his being widely referred to as the scientific leader of the Green Revolution movement. His advocacy of sustainable agriculture leading to the Evergreen Revolution made him an acknowledged world leader in the field of sustainable food security.Prof. Swaminathan is a Fellow of many of the leading scientific academies of India and the world, including the Royal Society of London and the US National Academy of Sciences. He has received 72 honorary doctorate degrees from universities around the world. He currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology, and is Founder and Chairman of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai (Madras), India. Dr Swaminathan also Chairs the Task Force set up by the Ministry of External Affairs (India) to oversee the projects undertaken in Afghanistan and Myanmar in the field of agriculture.Prof. Swaminathan was Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee, which had been set up in 1980 to take follow-up action on the Vienna Plan of Action. He has also served as Independent Chairman of the FAO Council (1981–1985) and President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (1984–1990). He was President of the World Wide Fund for Nature (India) from 1989–1996, President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (2002–2007), President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1991–1996 and 2005–2007), and Chairman of the National Commission on Farmers (2004–2006). He was a trustee of Bibliotheca Alexandrina in its formative years. Prof. Swaminathan was a Member of the Parliament of India (Rajya Sabha) from 2007–2013, and chaired the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) for the World Committee on Food Security (CFS) from 2010–2013.The International Association of Women and Development conferred on him the first international award for significant contributions to promoting the knowledge, skill, and technological empowerment of women in agriculture and for his pioneering role in mainstreaming gender considerations in agriculture and rural development. Other awards conferred to Prof. Swaminathan include: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1971); the Albert Einstein World Science Award (1986); the first World Food Prize (1987); the Volvo, Tyler and UNEP Sasakawa Prize for Environment; the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development (2000); the Franklin D Roosevelt Four Freedoms Medal; the Mahatma Gandhi Prize of UNESCO (2000); the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award (2007); the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration and Greatest Global Living Legend Award of NDTV (2013); the Padma Shri (1967); Padma Bhushan (1972); and Padma Vibushan (1989). Prof Swaminathan was also elected at the 20th International Congress of Nutrition held at Granada, Spain, „as Living Legend of International Union of Nutrition Sciences”. He received the Life Time Achievement Award at the 9th Nutra Summit in Bangalore.