Norman E. Borlaug, Ph.D.

Dr. Norman E. Borlaug is an agricultural scientist, teacher, humanitarian, and Nobel laureate, and is known as the Father of the Green Revolution. He is a Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture at Texas A&M University and Special Consultant with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico City.

Borlaug was a member of the first international agricultural research and production team -- namely the Cooperative Mexican Ministry of Agriculture - Rockefeller Foundation Program -- whose success gave rise to the sixteen International Agricultural Research Centers currently operating worldwide. The wheat production technology he and his team developed in Mexico was introduced into Pakistan, India, Turkey, China, and several South American countries during the 1960s. He is credited with saving more lives than any person who has ever lived.

Borlaug has been honored with more than fifty honorary degrees and has received numerous academic, scientific, achievement, government, and civic awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize (1970) in recognition of his efforts to eradicate hunger and build international prosperity, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977), and a National Medal of Science (2006). In 1986, Dr. Borlaug established the World Food Prize to recognize individuals who have improved the quality, quantity, or availability of food around the globe.

Dr. Borlaug earned his B.S. in forestry in 1937, his M.S. in plant pathology in 1940, and his Ph.D. in plant pathology in 1942 from the University of Minnesota.

(Profile posted Nov. 2006.)