M. S. Swaminathan

M. S. Swaminathan

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Category: Science

M. S. Swaminathan Profile

  • Name:
  • M. S. Swaminathan
  • Born:
  • August 7, 1925

M. S. Swaminathan Biography

M. S. Swaminathan is an Indian scientist doing his research in agricultural industry. He is known as the Father of the Green Revolution in India. He had contributed to the development of high yielding varieties of wheat in India. He is the founder and Chairman of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation and striving to rid the world of hunger and poverty. His goal is sustainable development with food security and preservation of biodiversity.

 

He was born on 7th August 1925 in Kumbakonan, Tamil Nadu. His father is a doctor. He has three brothers. His father died when he was eleven years old. He studied at Native High School and then at Little Flower Catholic High School in Kumbakonam. Then he joined Maharajas College in Ernakulam and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology. He joined Coimbatore Agricultural College and graduated as valedictorian with another B.Sc in Agricultural Science. After finishing post graduation in genetics and plant breeding, he joined Indian Agricultural Research Institute and finished his post graduate degree in Cytogenetics in 1949.

 

He got UNESCO Fellowship to continue his research in potato genetics at the Wageningen Agricultural University at Netherlands. He succeeded in transferring the genes to the cultivated potato. He studied at Plant Breeding Institute in University of Cambridge and got his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1952. Then he continued his post-doctoral research at University of Wisconsin in Department of Genetics and returned to India in 1954.

 

He married Mina Swaminathan in 1951, whom he met when studying at Cambridge and has three daughters Soumya Swaminathan, Madhura Swaminathan, and Nitya Rao. Dr. Swaminathan. He has five grandchildren. He is an ardent follower of Sri Aurobindo.

 

His professional achievements include research on potato and wheat, teaching cytogenetics, radiation genetics and mutation breeding. He has held many positions like President of World Wide Fund, Chairman of Food and Agricultural Organization, Director General of International Rice Research Institute, etc. He has published many scientific papers in the fields of crop improvement, cytogenetics and genetics, phylogenetics, and radiation botany. He received many awards and honors including Padma Bhushan award in 1972, Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1971 and Padma Shri Award in 1967. 


Published: N/A

Updated: December 30, 2012

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