Announcements

Welcome to New Board Chairs:
Lene Lange, CIMMYT, succeeding Alex McCalla.

Welcome to New Board Members:
Majd Jamal and Abdelmajid Slama join ICARDA Board of Trustees;
Domingo Panganiban joins IRRI Board of Trustees

Jean-Marcel Ribaut, a Swiss-French national was appointed Director of the CGIAR Generation Challenge Program (GCP) effective September 2005.

Honors:
ICARDA:

• Adel El-Beltagy, Director General, received the Al-Istikal ( Independence) Medal from His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein of Jordan
• Ashutosh Sarker, Lentil Breeder, received a plaque of honor from the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI)

IFPRI:

• Ester Mwangi, IFPRI, was co-winner of the American Political Science Association Harold D. Laswell Award
• Joachim von Braun, Director General, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim, Germany
• Isher Judge Ahluwalia was named Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER)
• Klaus von Grebmer was elected Chair of the CGIAR Marketing Group effective September 1.

IRRI:

• William G. Padolina, Deputy Director General for Partnerships, was selected as the joint winner of the 2005 ASEAN Science and Technology Meritorious Award
• Gene Hettel received the 2005 Service Award of the US-based Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences

WorldFish Center

The 2005 Tech Museum Award was given to WorldFish Center for its work on GIFT (genetically improved farmed tilapia) technology that applies sound animal breeding and genetics principles to the improvement of tropical food fish, in particular the Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). The award is given by The Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose, California, and five Laureates share the $250,000 cash prize.