CGIAR's Science Awards 2007 were presented to:

Darshan Brar, a senior scientist with IRRI, won the "Science Award for Outstanding Scientist" for his work in broadening the gene pool of cultivated rice.

Natalia Palacios, from CIMMYT, won the "Science Award for Promising Young Scientist" for her work in developing technologies for quick and inexpensive diagnosis of key nutritional traits in maize, enabling large-scale screening.

The "Award for Outstanding Agricultural Technology in the Asia- Pacific Region" was given to the Joint Wheat Quality Team at the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Science and CAAS for developing three high quality wheat cultivars.

The "Science Award for Outstanding Partnership" went to the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium to Support Cassava Research and Development (CLAYUCA). One of the partnership's recent initiatives is the development of an alternative approach for producing ethanol from cassava.

IThe ReefBase team led by Jamie Oliver from WorldFish Center received the" Science Award for an Outstanding Scientific Support Team" for their work in creating and maintaining the online ReefBase repository of information on the world's 10,000 coral reefs.

Xu Kenong from the University of California at Davis and four IRRI scientists led by David Mackill won the "Science Award for an Outstanding Scientific Article" for their article "Sub 1A is an ethylene response factor- like gene that confers submergence tolerance to rice" published in Nature Magazine in 2006.

Jiang Jianke, a senior writer from People's Daily received the "CAAS-CGIAR Award for Excellence in Journalism in China" for his dedication and achievements in reporting on agriculture research and technology in China.

CGIAR's Science Awards 2006 were presented to:

Ram P. Thakur, a plant pathologist with ICRISAT, won the "Science Award for Outstanding Scientist" for his work on managing major diseases in pearl millet and sorghum, key creal grain crops grown in arid regions. Click here for video.

Thomas Dubois, from IITA, won the "Science Award for Promising Young Scientist" for his work to improve bananas in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa, where the plant is often the chief contributor to household income. Click here for video.

Bir Bahadur Singh, a plant breeder at IITA, won the "Outstanding Senior Scientist Award" for his vast research on cowpea, inclding a fast-maturing '60-day' cowpea variety for the tropics and seeds with resistance to more than 10 diseases.

The "Science Award for Outstanding Partnership" went to CGIAR Genebank Community comprised of 11 CGIAR Centers who hold plant genetic resources in trust for the world community.

The CG V-Library Team, received the "Science Award for an Outstanding Scientific Support Team" for their work on the launch of the CGIAR Virtual Library.

Teams from ILRI and the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) led by Malcolm Gardner won the "Science Award for an Outstanding Scientific Article" for their paper "Genome Sequence of Theileria parva a Bovine Pathogen that Transforms Lymphocytes" published in Science Magazine.

Patrick Maundu, from Bioversity International, won the "Science Award for Outstanding Communications" for his campaign to promote consumption of micronutrient-rich leafy vegetables in supermarkets in Kenya, and increasing the sale of the green vegetables by 1100 percent in two years.

The CGIAR King Baudouin Award 2006 went to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for an innovative, on-going series of maize breeding projects in Southern and Eastern Africa that have produced more than 50 new varieties planted on at least 1 million hectares. Click here for video.

CGIAR's Science Awards 2005 were presented to:

Ravi Singh, from CIMMYT, won the "Science Award for Outstanding Scientist" for developing "slow rusting" wheat varieties with improved resistance to an array of diseases such as leaf rust, yellow rust, powdery mildew, and spot blotch, among others.

Simon Paul Graham, from ILRI, won the "Science Award for Promising Young Scientist" for seminal research leading to the development of a novel, sensitive, and robust immunological assay that screens target parasite molecules causing East Coast Fever (ECF), a debilitating bovine disease that is the bane of pastoralists in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Moatasim Sidahmed, from the American University of Beirut, won the "Regional Award for Outstanding Agricultural Technology" for developing a cutter-and-feeder mechanism that allows mechanical harvesting of lentils, a drought-resistant crop rich in proteins that is grown widely in the Central, West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region. The equipment allows lentil harvesting with wide ranging moisture content (14 to 29 percent).

The "Science Award for Outstanding Partnership" went to the "Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn (ASB) Program" for developing more environment-friendly farming techniques and slowing deforestation. Coordinated by the Kenya-based World Agroforestry Centre, the ASB program is a global partnership of over 80 institutions, conducting research in 12 tropical forest biomes (or biologically diverse areas) in the Amazon, Congo basin, northern Thailand, and the islands of Mindanao in Philippines and Sumatra in Indonesia. Its efforts are directed toward curbing deforestation while ensuring that poor people benefit from nature's environmental services. Thomas Tomich, Global Coordinator of ASB received the award on behalf of the partnership.

Ilona Kononenko, received the "Science Award for an Outstanding Scientific Support Team" on behalf of a team supporting the Program for Sustainable Agricultural Production in Central Asia and Caucasus (CAC) located in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Shaobing Peng, from IRRI, and his co-authors won the "Science Award for an Outstanding Scientific Article" for the research article "Rice yields decline with higher night temperature from global warming" published in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

Patricia Shanley, from CIFOR, won the "Science Award for Outstanding Communications" for her work co-editing, in conjunction with Gabriel Medina, the book or "Fruit Trees and Useful Plants in the Lives of Amazonians" (or Fruitiferas e Plantas Uteis na Vida Amazonica in Portuguese). The book is a joint publication of Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), Imazon (the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment) and CIFOR.

For more details see News Release dtd October 27, 2004

P. Lava Kumar of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) received the Young Scientist Award for identifying the agent that causes sterility mosaic disease in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan).

Brian Perry, a veterinary epidemiologist who works at the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) received the Outstanding Scientist Award for innovative work on the dynamics and control of tick-borne diseases of livestock that has led to improved methods of controlling these diseases at both farm and national levels.

Outstanding Partnership Award to Community Based Fisheries Management, a partnership coordinated by WorldFish Center in Bangladesh that empowers communities by providing them knowledge so that they can make better-informed decisions on the sustainable use and management of the fisheries.

Outstanding Scientific Support Award to Christine Casal and the team at WorldFish Center who developed FishBase, an internationally recognized premier database and information system on the world's fishes.

Outstanding Scientific Article Award to Marta Vasconcelos (and eight authors) of the Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute for their article "Enhanced iron and zinc accumulation in transgenic rice with the ferritin gene" published in Plant Science.

CGIAR King Baudouin Award:

CGIAR King Baudouin Award to the Rice-Wheat Consortium of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (led by the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)) for combining their efforts in promoting conservation agriculture benefiting large numbers of farm families in the Indo-Gangetic plains of South Asia.

Communications Awards:

Outstanding Journalism Award to Natasha Loder for her article "The Promise of a Blue Revolution" published in The Economist on August 9, 2003.

Outstanding Communications Award to Smallholder Dairy Project, jointly implemented by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenyan Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, and Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute for an innovative communication strategy that helped raise awareness among key policymakers about strategic and pro-poor issues in reforming East Africa's dairy sector.

CGIAR's Science Awards 2003 are presented to:
(for more details see News Release)

Dr. Abdul Mujeeb Kazi at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) was named Outstanding Scientist for generating and making available new genetic diversity for wheat improvement.

Promising Young Scientist is Jonathan Crouch, the Global Theme Leader for Biotechnology at the International Center for Research in the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

The Outstanding Scientific Article award went to three researchers at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (ITTA), K. Cardwell, A. Hounsa, and S. Egal, along with Y.Y. Gong, P.C. Turner, and C.P. Wild of the University of Leeds, U.K., and A. J. Hall at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and to Oliver Hanotte, Joel W. Ochieng, Yasmin Verjee, and J. Edward O. Rege of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Daniel G. Bradley and Emmeline W. Hill of the Smurfit Institute at Trinity College in Ireland

The Outstanding Partnership award recognized the Vitamin A for Africa program, coordinated by the International Potato Center (CIP) under its director-general, Hubert Zandstra, for its work with 44 local and international development organizations implementing the program in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda

The Genetic Resources Center Support Team of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) received the Outstanding Scientific Support award for contributing to effective and efficient operation of IRRI's rice gene bank.

The Outstanding Journalism award went to Indian journalist Pallava Bagla.

The Outstanding Communications award went to M.J. Williams at the WorldFish Center for the Fish for All Campaign

Click here for a more complete list of awardees in 2002.

Dr. Per Pinstrup-Andersen (IFPRI) wins the 2001 World Food Prize for his contributions to the improvement of agricultural research and food policy and to the raising of the status of the poor and hungry all over the world. Read more.

CGIAR Chairman's Excellence in Science Awards are presented to: Outstanding Scientist: Hari C. Sharma (ICRISAT),
Promising Young Scientist: Alex Kahi (ILRI), CIAT: Outstanding Partnership for Sustainable Land Management of Acid Soil Savannas, IRRI: Outstanding Scientific Support Team for their work on IRRI's hybrid rice breeding program, IRRI: Outstanding Scientific Article: "Genetic Diversity and Disease Control in Rice

M.S. Swaminathan is acclaimed by "Time" Magazine as one of the twenty most influential Asians of this century. "Time" says that he used his skills and powers of persuasion to make famine an unfamilar word in Asia. In addition, he received the 1999 Volvo Envrionment Prize for his international leadership in agriculture and resource conservation.

CGIAR Chairman's Excellence in Science Awards are presented to: Paul E. Ilona (IITA), Amos Omore (ILRI), James Legg (IITA), and David Bergvinson (CIMMYT)

CGIAR Chairman's Excellence in Science Awards are presented to Marianne Bänziger (CIMMYT), A.K. Singh (ICRISAT), Marco Rondón (CIAT) and, in partnership, to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and ILRI.

Jerry Vanclay (CIFOR) receives the Queen's Award for Forestry, given by the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, for his achievements in tropical forest research and management.

Gurdev Khush (IRRI) is awarded the Dr. K. Ramiah Medal from the Indian National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his contributions to global rice science.

John Ryan (ICARDA) receives the International Soil Science Award from the International Soil Society of America for his work in dryland areas.

Carlos Ochoa (CIP) receives the Inter-American Science Prize from the Organization of American States for his life's work as a plant explorer, researcher, and educator.

Pedro Sanchez (ICRAF) receives the International Service In Agronomy Award from the American Society of Agronomy and the International Soil Science Award from the Soil Science Society of America for his outstanding contributions to tropical soils research.

Peter R. Jennings (Rockefeller Foundation field staff at IRRI and CIAT) receives the American Society of Agronomy Award for International Service in Agronomy.

Rattan Lal (IITA), is awarded the International Soil Science Award from the Soil Science Society of America.

Henry M. Beachell and Gurdev S. Khush (IRRI) ) receive the prestigious Japan Prize, the country's top scientific award, for their roles in developing semi-dwarf varieties that launched the Green Revolution in rice farming.

M.S. Swaminathan (IRRI) receives the Golden Heart Presidential Award from Philippine President Corazon Aquino for strengthening IRRI's capacity to conduct upstream research.

John Mellor (IFPRI) receives the U.S. Presidential End Hunger Award for his work on science and education policy issues.

M.S. Swaminathan (IRRI) receives the World Food Prize for leading the introduction of high-yielding wheat and rice to Indian farmers.