Albert Einstein World Award of Science 1986
Field of Research: Agriculture
Date: 6 November 1986
Place of Ceremony: Teatro Degollado
Host Institution: University of Guadalajara
Host Country: Guadalajara, México
The University of Guadalajara, Mexico, hosted the World Cultural Council’s 1985 Award Ceremony, where it presented Dr. Monkombu S. Swaminathan with the Albert Einstein World Award of Science.
Dr. Swaminathan received the award for his contributions to plant genetics and his influence on international agricultural development. By many he is regarded as the co-author of the Green Revolution in Asia, a program under which high-yield varieties of wheat and rice seedlings were planted in the fields of poor farmers. He worked on this program with Dr. Norman Borlaug, a Founder Member of the World Cultural Council.
Swaminathan, born in 1925 in Tamil Nadu, was educated in India and at the University of Cambridge (Ph.D. in 1952) as a geneticist. Over the following 20 years, he held various research and administrative positions in the Indian civil service. He was instrumental in introducing Mexican semidwarf wheat plants to Indian fields and securing greater acceptance of modern farming methods.
From 1972 to 1979 he was Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and then became first secretary of the Indian Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.
