MS Swaminathan, 05 July 2018 - 14 July 2018

Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is a plant geneticist, agricultural scientist and scientific administrator. He was born on 7 August 1925 at Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. He completed his early school education at the Native High School and, later, the Catholic Little Flower High School in Kumbakonam. He moved to Trivandrum in 1940 to pursue his undergraduate studies in Zoology at University College. The Bengal Famine of 1943 urged M.S. Swaminathan to devote a career to improve agricultural standards and food security in the country. He obtained a B.Sc. in Agriculture in 1947 from the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Coimbatore.

In 1949, he completed his associateship with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi with distinction in Genetics and Plant Breeding. In 1949, he also qualified the Civil Service Examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission and was offered a position with the Indian Police Service. However, Swaminathan opted for research by accepting the offer to become a UNESCO Fellow in Genetics at the Agricultural University at Wageningen, the Netherlands, during 1949-50. He went on to complete his PhD on ‘Species Differentiation, and the Nature of Polyploidy in certain species of the Genus Solanum- section Tuberarium’ at the School of Agriculture, Cambridge University, England. Following this, he worked as a research associate in the Department of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States of America, until 1953.

Swaminathan returned to India in 1954 and undertook work in the Indica Japonica Rice Hybridization Programme at the Central Rice Research Institute, Odisha. In October 1954, he joined the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, as Assistant Cytogeneticist in the Botany Division. He proceeded to head the Botany Division in 1962 and later assumed leadership of IARI from 1966 to 1972. In January 1972, he took the lead as the Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. In 1979, he joined the Government of India as Principal Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation. In 1980, he then retired from government services and joined the Planning Commission as a member for agriculture and rural development. Swaminathan also served as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission between April and June, 1980. In April 1982, he took over as the Director-General of the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines. It was during his tenure at IRRI when he was awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987 at the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington D.C. Returning to India in 1988, he began formally establishing his own research centre named the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, located in Chennai from the proceeds of the World Food Prize. He has also held other administrative positions of importance. He was the Chairman of the National Commission of Farmers, Government of India (2004-06), President of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2005-07) and was a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (2007-2013). He also served in the capacity of President for the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from 2002 - 2007.

His early years of research were focused on the origin and differentiation of potato species. He is also popularly known for his contributions to research in wheat and rice, made popular by the ‘Green Revolution’ in India. Other areas of research include disaster management strategies, improved crop productivity, genetic resource centres and work in biotechnology.

He has authored and edited 18 books and over 250 research papers. He is well-recognized by the scientific community with honorary positions at various academies that include the Royal Society of London, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences at the United States etc. He has received 84 honorary doctorates and is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award (1961), Padma Shri (1967), Ramon Magsaysay Award (1971), Padma Bhushan (1972), World Food Prize (1987), and the Padma Vibhushan (1989).