Prof MS Swaminathan appointed as Chancellor of Sikkim University

GANGTOK, Feb. 25: Acclaimed agriculture scientist Prof MS Swaminathan also known as the ‘Father of the Green Revolution in India’ has been announced by Sikkim University as its Chancellor.
Sikkim University, the 23rd university in India, announced the appointment of Prof MS Swaminathan as its Chancellor today in a press statement.
“A trained plant geneticist, Professor Swaminathan’s advocacy of sustainable agricultural has led to an ever green revolution making him an acknowledged world leader in the field of sustainable food security”, said Sikkim University.
Prof Swaminathan is currently a Rajya Sabha member of Parliament, to which position he was nominated by the Government of India in recognition of his outstanding scientific contribution in the field of agriculture. He also the UNESCO -Cousteau Chair in Ecotechnology at the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, India. He is the chairman of the National Commission on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security of India (National Commission on Farmers).
Among the endless list of awards received by Prof Swaminathan are the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1971, the Albert Einstein World Science Award in 1986, the first World Food Prize in 1987 and Volvo and Tyler Prize for Environment, the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in 2000 and the Franklin D Roosevelt four Freedoms Medal and the Mahatma Gandhi Prize of Unescoin 2000.
Prof Swaminathan is currently spearheading a movement to bridge the Digital divide called, "Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre". He was born in August 7, 1925, in Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu.
Prof Swaminathan’s stated vision is to rid the world of hunger and poverty and is an advocate of sustainable development, especially using environmentally sustainable agriculture, sustainable food security and the preservation of biodiversity. He has been listed by TIME magazine as the twenty most influential Asians of the 20th Century and one of the three from India, the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.
Prof. Swaminathan has been described by the United Nations Environment Programme as ‘the father of Economics Ecology’ and by Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary General of the United Nations as ‘a living Legend who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinctions’. He was Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee set up in 1980 to take follow-up actions on the Vienna Plan fo Action. He also served as President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (2002-07) and present President of the National Academy of Agricultural Aciences(2005-07).