He was an Indian geneticist, renowned for leading India’s Green Revolution developing higher-yielding varieties of wheat. He’s the founding Chairman of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation.
He also served as Chair and Director of the International Rice Research Institute (1982-1988), the President of IUCN (1984-1990), the President of the World Wildlife Fund for India (1986-1996), the Director of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (1961-1972), and a Member of the Parliament of India (2007-2013).
He has published >250 articles and >10 books, including An Evergreen Revolution (2006), In Search of Biohappiness—Biodiversity and Food, Health and Livelihood Security (2011; 2/E, 2015), and 50 Years of Green Revolution—An Anthology of Research Papers (2017).
He received 50 honorary degrees. He was also awarded the first World Food Prize (1987) and UNEP’s Sasakawa Environment Prize (2002), appeared on Time magazine’s list of 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century and was described as the ”Father of Economic Ecology” by UNEP,