Significant Dates in IRRI History

April

1 April: 1982, M.S. Swaminathan (photo) arrives as IRRI’s fourth director general; 1999, a new, overhauled IRRN debuts with an editorial board of scientists overseeing the content; 2002, first issue of Rice Today magazine debuts, www.irri.org/ricetoday.

2 April: 2006, as part of the Korean Seed Multiplication Project (KSMP), 25 tons of high-quality rice seed multiplied under IRRI's controlled conditions are airlifted to the National Institute of Crop Science in Korea (photo at right). Korea’s achievement in rice self-sufficiency through the “Green Revolution" of the 1970s was made possible through similar past arrange-ments. The first KSMP for rapid dissemination of the popular Tongil variety was accomplished during the 1969-70 dry season.

3 April: 1995, George Rothschild (photo) arrives as IRRI’s sixth director general; 1997, IRRI launches  www.riceworld.org (currently under renonvation), which provides a virtual tour of the IRRI Riceworld Museum; 2002, the Collaborators' Center building is renamed Gurdev S. Khush Hall during dedication ceremonies as part of the BOT meeting.

5 April: 1983, IRRI receives the 1982 Third World Prize; 1991, M.S. Swaminathan, former IRRI director general, receives the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; 2005, two success story entries with IRRI ties win major awards— Three Reductions, Three Grains, program to improve environment and livelihood of millions of rice farmers in Vietnam and Genuinely Lao, the story of the project that revolutionized rice production in Laos—in a competition sponsored by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for countries in its East Asia Division.

7 April: 2005, Four members of the House of Commons from the Netherlands and staff members from the Royal Netherlands Embassy visit IRRI; 2006, 1) the auditorium in Chandler Hall is officially dedicated as the Robert D. Havener Auditorium; Florencia “Flor” Palis (photo below with BOT chair Kei Otsuka and DG Robert Zeigler), postdoctoral fellow in the Entomology and Pathology Division, and the IRRI Emergency Brigade were presented with, respectively, the Director General’s 2005 Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement and the 2005 IRRI Award for Outstanding Support of IRRI’s Mission. 2) IRRI and the International Potato Center (CIP) make CGIAR history by becoming the first two CG Centers to have a video conference using the Access Grid, which is a technology for enabling multiple locations, even dozens, to participate simultaneously in a video conference.

8 April: 1968, the first week-long International Rice Research Conference (IRRC) begins at IRRI. The 26th installment of the IRRC will be held 9-13 October 2006, as part of the International Rice Congress in New Delhi.
9 April: 1970, UN Secretary General U Thant (center in photo at left with IRRI breeder Hank Beachell at left and IRRI DG Robert Chandler) visits IRRI; 1992, IRRI names new biofertilizer laboratory for Prof. Kenzo Hemmi, an outstanding Japanese agriculturist; 2002, due to impending budget cuts the staff reduction program for nationally recruited staff begins.

10 April: 1983, Premier Zhao Ziyang, People’s Republic of China, presents IRRI with the 1982 Third World Prize.

11 April: 2002, For developing improved rice varieties and for his contributions to increasing rice production in the Philippines, Gurdev Khush is awarded a Presidential Citation from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

12 April: 1981, 125 tons of Korean rice seeds grown in the Philippines are airlifted to Korea. See 2 April.

13 April: 1960, the IRRI Board of Trustees gets together for the first time, chaired by J. George Harrar (at left in photo) to kick off a 3-day meeting.

14 April: 1960, IRRI is officially organized as the bylaws are adopted and approved in Manila; 1987, H.M. Beachell, former IRRI plant breeder, and G.S. Khush, head, IRRI’s Plant Breeding Department share the Japan Prize in Tokyo; 2003, F.H. Abed (photo), founder and chair of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and member of the IRRI BOT, is awarded the 2003 Gleitsman Foundation International Activist Award for the Eradication of Poverty.

15 April: 1960, IRRI Program Committee meets for the first time; 2003, T.P. Tuong is named the head of the Crop, Soil, and Water Sciences (CSWS) Division.

16 April: 1986, M.S. Swaminathan, IRRI director general, is given the Krishi Ratna Award by India’s President Giani Zail Singh; 1999, T.T. Chang, former head of International Rice Germplasm Center, accepts Tyler World Prize for Environmental Achievement in Los Angeles.

17 April: 2001, Shu-Huang Ou, (photo) former head of the IRRI Department of Plant Pathology (1962-78) and author of the classic book, Rice Diseases, passes away in California; 2006, starting today and throughout the rest of the week of 17-21 April, almost 2,000 staff and dependents received the seasonal flu vaccination to ward off the looming avian flu threat; 2007, a workshop on "Clearing Old Hurdles with New Science: Improving Rice Grain Quality" includes the first meeting of the International Network for Quality Rice (INQR).

18 April: 1968, because he was so impressed with the performance of the rice variety that ushered in the Green Revolution, Indian farmer K.N. Ganesan (photo at right 15 years later) names his newborn son IR8; 1972, inexplicably since IRRI's founding date is 1960, the Institute begins a week-long 10th anniversary celebration attended by Ralph Cummings, Sr. (at right in photo with Robert Chandler, Jr.) who would on 1 June will become IRRI's second director general. 1982, J. George Harrar, Rockefeller Foundation official who conceived IRRI, passes away in Scarsdale, New York; 2005, the IRRI Environmental Council holds its inaugural meeting to begin implementing the Institute's Environmental Agenda. 2007, Ms. Evangelina F. Salcedo-Ella (photo, right), Mr. Edgar Amoloza, the PBGB Rice Genetics V Secretariat, and the IRRI-India Office staff are presented with, respectively, the 2006 IRRI Awards for Outstanding Scientific Achievement, Outstanding Research Support, and Outstanding Administrative Support; a delegation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation led by Bill Gates (photo), co-founder of the Foundation and chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corp., and Dr. Raj Shah, director of the Agricultural Development Program of the Foundation, visit the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)-IRRI Joint Lab on Rice Molecular Breeding and Genetics headed by IRRI molecular geneticist Zhi-Kang Li.

19 April: 2001, David J. Mackill takes over as head of the Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biochemistry Division.

20 April: 1972, during IRRI's 10th anniversary celebration, the Institute's so-called "Magnificent Seven" of the time gathers in the rice plots, from left in the photo: Sterling Wortman, A. Colin McLung, Hank Beachell, Jose Drilon, Forest Hill, Ralph Cummings, and Robert Chandler; 2005, the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of Korea and IRRI continue collaboration in implementing the training workshop on Rice Technology Transfer Systems (RTTS)—the first of its kind in Asia. Training Center Head Mark Bell is presented with a Gratitude Plate in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the successful implementation of the RTTS and the further strengthening of the collaboration between Korea and IRRI. Past IRRI winners of this award are Ben Vergara, Gurdev Khush, and Ronald Cantrell.

21 April: 1980, Harrar Hall (housing Food and Housing Services, cafeteria, and the mail and radio rooms) is dedicated in honor of J. George Harrar (left in photo) of the Rockefeller Foundation who developed the concept of an international center in Asia devoted to rice.

23 April: 1969, Robert Chandler attends the Bellagio I Meeting as part of a delegation of 15 national and international donor organizations. This 3-day meeting started a series of conferences that resulted in the formation of the CGIAR; 2007, twenty high school students from Thailand and the Philippines (photo) attend IRRI’s Rice Camp 2007--the 2nd one-week training course that exposes the participants to the basics of agriculture as well as the new frontiers that await young rice scientists in the future.

24 April: 2006, 19 students from Thailand and the Philippines (photo) begin the first-ever, week-long rice camp hosted by IRRI, in conjunction with the Thai Rice Foundation and the Philippine Rice Institute. The students work in the rice fields, listen to various lectures, and participate in fun-filled learning activities. Click here for a 2:00 video.

25 April: 1989, Gurdev S. Khush is elected Foreign Associate, US National Academy of Science; 2002, IRRI plant breeder Darshan Brar is named an Honorary Fellow of the Crop Science Society of the Philippines (CSSP); 2005, CIMMYT research committee members arrive at IRRI headquarters to, in part, meet with their counterparts for moving forward with the four Alliance Programs proposed by the two centers’ boards.

26 April: 2007, Mahabub Hossain, economist and head, Social Sciences Division, gives a farewell summary of social science research at IRRI since 1992. Wrapping up his 15 years with a dual role as a researcher and administrative head in SSD, he presents a synthesis of socioeconomic studies on rice supply and demand trends in Asia and discusses constraints to increasing rice productivity, understanding rural livelihood systems, and the impact of improved rice technologies on poverty reduction. Dr. Hossain is retiring from IRRI to become the executive officer of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC).

28 April: 2004, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo honors Dr. S.K. De Datta (photo), former IRRI agronomist and principal scientist (1964-91), with a Presidential Citation Award. In 1981, Dr. De Datta published Principles and Practices of Rice Production with John Wiley and Sons, which is recognized as a major contribution to the rice science literature.

30 April: 1960, University of the Philippines President Sinco signs a lease for all the University-owned land made available to IRRI for both buildings and experimental fields; 2002, Lao PDR Prime Minister Boun-nhang Vorachith visits IRRI.