Significant Dates in IRRI History

October
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1 October: 1976, the first issue of the International Rice Research Newsletter (IRRN) is distributed to rice scientists worldwide; 1990, H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester visits IRRI.

4 October: 2003, an exhibition, with IRRI contributions, on the Art of Rice: Spirit and Sustenance in Asia opens a 7-month run at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History on the UCLA campus in California, USA.

6 October: 1987, the first General Foods World Food Prize is presented to M.S. Swaminathan, IRRI director general, in Washington, D.C.

8 October: 2001, with more than 5,000 images available, IRRI’s Rice Photo Bank debuts online at http://rice-photos.irri.org/.

9 October: 2006, the week-long 2nd International Rice Congress brings to New Delhi, India, 1,383 rice researchers, traders, millers, farmers, and agriculture ministers, including 400 delegates from 45 countries other than India. This largest gathering ever of rice workers deliberate on various aspects of rice production, commerce, and international cooperation with a special focus on the latest research, science, and technology.

10 October: 1976, An IRRI group led by Director General Nyle Brady travels to China for a 3-week trip that takes them to most of the institutions conducting rice research as well as rice-growing communes where they interview actual farmers. Others in the group are economist Randy Barker, agronomist S.K. De Datta, breeder G.S.Khush, and pathologist S.H. Ou.

12 October: 2007, IRRI is awarded the 6th Iue Asia Pacific Culture Prize during the Asia Pacific Forum of the Awaji Conference in Kobe, Japan. The prize certificate states (left): "Your institute has made many great contributions to reduce poverty and solve environmental problems, and through your efforts, we expect that in the future you will further lead the way to a multicultural society in the Asia Pacific Region."

15 October: 1986, Philip-pine President Corazon C. Aquino (photo) dedicates IRRI’s new Biotechnology and Seed Health Building to the rice scientists and farmers of the world during her World Food Day visit; 2001, a long tradition of technical reporting on rice research at IRRI comes to an end with the publishing of the last Program Report (for 2000; cover, left); 2004, IRRI's Rice Knowledge Bank passes 5 million hits since its launching in September 2002; 2007, Gary C. Jahn, entomologist and IRRI coordinator for the Greater Mekong Subregion, is honored at the International Plant Protection Congress in Glasgow, Scotland, for his major contributions to the promotion of global plant protection; Why IRRI scientists believe they can create climate change-proof rice appears on CNN TV as part of the series on Eco Solutions. Robert Zeigler and David Mackill (at right in screen capture) are interviewed. Click here to view the 2:36 video on the CNN Web site.

16 October: 1982, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (center in photo below flanked by agronomist S.K. De Datta and Director General M.S. Swaminathan) visits IRRI to give an address on World Food Day; 1987, Swaminathan Hall (housing IPMO and the Training Center) is dedicated; 1989, K.J. Lampe, IRRI director general, accepts Indonesia’s Bintang Jasa Utama, or Highest Merit Award during the World Food Day ceremonies in Wonogiri, Central Java; 1995, The 3rd International Rice Genetics Symposium (Rice Genetics III) begins, attracting around 500 scientists.

17 October: 1986, R.F. Chandler, Jr., IRRI’s first director general, receives the U.S. Presidential End Hunger Award in Washington, D.C.

18 October: 1996, G.S. Khush, IRRI principal plant breeder, and H.M. Beachell, former IRRI plant breeder, share the 1996 World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa; 2006, IRRI participates in the 5th World Rice Commerce Conference (WRC2006) in  Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, attracting a record crowd of  more than 200 paying delegates from around the world.

19 October: 1982, IRRI receives the first biennial King Baudouin International Agricultural Research Award for its development of IR36, awarded by the CGIAR.

20 October: 2002, EPPD Head Tom Mew wins the Friendship Prize 2002 awarded by the Jiangsu Provincial Government for his contribution to rice protection and production in China.

22 October: 1998, IRRI is awarded a Silver award in the region’s first Asian Innovation Awards conducted by The Far Eastern Economic Review; 2000, IRRI hosts and kicks off the 5-day 4th International Rice Genetics Symposium (Rice Genetics IV) with more than 500 participants from 28 countries, the largest meeting ever held at headquarters.

23 October: 2001, IRRI soil scientist Roland Buresh is selected as a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) and IRRI plant breeder Sant Virmani is selected as a Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA).

24 October: 1981, the N.C. Brady Laboratory (housing social sciences, plant breeding and genetics, and the Genetic Resources Center) is dedicated to IRRI’s 3rd Director General (1973-81; photo right).

26 October: 1966, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson (in photo with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and IRRI DG Robert Chandler) visits IRRI; 2000, Senior associate scientist Alberto Barrion is named Outstanding Local Scientist for 2000 by the CGIAR, in Washington, D.C.; 2007, IRRI DG Robert S. Zeigler, is awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow.

28 October: 2004, During the CGIAR annual meeting in Mexico, the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains receives the King Baudouin Award and a team of IRRI scientists wins the Science Award for Outstanding Scientific Article for Enhanced iron and zinc accumulation in transgenic rice with the ferritin gene” published in Plant Science.

29 October: 2002, IRRI Day, one of the early events of the 2002 CGIAR annual general meeting (AGM), brought more than 280 visitors—led by CGIAR chairman Ian Johnson—to IRRI Headquarters; 2003, Filipino researchers at IRRI (this time in the Genetic Resources Center, photo) win, for the third consecutive year, the CGIAR Excellence in Science Award for a scientific support team during the CGIAR’s Annual General Meeting in Nairobi.

30 October: 2001, IRRI is the only CG center to pick up two Excellence in Science Awards during the CGIAR’s Annual General Meeting in Washington. The Institute’s hybrid rice breeding team wins the award for the Outstanding Scientific Support Team, and the paper, Genetic diversity and disease control in rice, published in Nature, is chosen as the Outstanding Scientific Article; 2002, during the CGIAR’s Annual General Meeting in Manila, the Insti-tute’s biodiversity project team (photo) wins the award for the Outstanding Scientific Support Team; 2006, IRRI contributes to a major report published by the British government on the economics of climate change, authored by Sir Nicholas Stern, which suggests that global warming could shrink the global economy by 20%; 2007, Darshan Brar (left in photo), head of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology, is chosen as one of two winners of the Koshihikari International Rice Prize for 2007. The Prize recognizes rice researchers working in universities and international, national, and local agricultural research stations.

31 October: 1961, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman (left center in photo) visits IRRI; 2003, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf launches The International Year of Rice 2004 at the United Nations.