Significant Dates in IRRI History

August

1 August: 1990, IRRI donates 10 tons of rice to the Philippine government through Secretary of Agriculture Senen Bacani to help victims of the earthquake in the Philippines on 25 July 1990; 2000, the Information Center, made up of Communication and Publications Services (CPS); Visitors, Exhibition, and Conference Services (VECS); and Library and Documentation Services (LDS), is dissolved; 2002, Nigel Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton (photo, left) assumes his duties as the second head of IRRI's Genetic Resources Center (GRC).

2 August: 1999, The IRRI Hour radio program debuts on DZLB 97.4 FM; 2001, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visits IRRI.

3 August: 2005: Robert Havener (photo, right), interim IRRI director general in 1998, passes away in California.

5 August: 2002, the IRRI Training Center launches the Rice Knowledge Bank (RKB), now a component of the Cereal Knowledge Bank.

9 August: 2003, IRRI plant pathologist Hei Leung is named a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society (APS).

10 August: 2005, William G. Padolina (photo), IRRI Deputy Director General for Partnerships, is selected as one of the joint winners of the 2005 ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Science and Technology Meritorious Award for his “qualifications and significant contributions to the development and application of science and technology in the ASEAN region; 2006, a gene (Sub1a) that enables rice to survive complete submergence for up to 17 days is identified by a team of researchers at IRRI  (photo) and the University of California and announced in today's issue of the journal Nature. Click here to view a time-lapse video over the period of 13 June-31 August to view the effect of the gene placed in an IR64 background.

11 August: 2003, the Malaysian Plant Protection Society (MAPPS) selects K.L. Heong, IRRI entomologist, to receive its inaugural Award of Excellence in Plant Protection; 2004, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agrees to establish formal relations with IRRI, the beginning of the first-ever official ties between the Institute and the world's largest formal grouping of rice-producing nations; 2005, in this issue of Nature, the participants in the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (in which IRRI has played a role, specifically IRRI bioinformatics specialist Richard Bruskiewich who as a co-author of the paper provided annotation and analysis) present a map-based, finished quality sequence that covers 95% of the 389-megabase genome.

12 August: 2008, H.E. President and Madame Pascal Couchepin of the Swiss Confederation visit IRRI. The group also visited the International Rice Genebank and the Long-term Continuous Cropping Experiment. Switzerland has been a long-time supporter of IRRI's research through its Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The photo shows Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton (left) and Dr. Zeigler (partly hidden, right) with President Pascal and his wife, Madame Brigitte.

14 August: 1996, International School Los Baños (ISLB) opens it doors to children of international staff members, grades kinder through 6th.

16 August: 1999, M.S. Swaminathan is named among the 20 most influ-ential Asians of the 20th century by Time magazine.

17 August: 2000, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen visits IRRI headquarters.

18 August: 1994, the massive 7.5-ton MOMI sculpture of renowned Japanese artist Mitsuaki Tanabe is unveiled at the future site of the IRRI Riceworld Museum.

20 August: 2003, IRRI, represented by William Padolina, Deputy Director General for Partnerships, attends its first-ever ministerial meetings of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

25 August: 2004, IRRI BOT Chair Keijiro Otsuka, DG Ron Cantrell, and Spokesperson Duncan Macintosh pay a courtesy call on His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand  in Bangkok and recognize his life-long commitment to improving the lives of poor rice farmers and consumers.

26 August: 2009, IRRI DG Robert Zeigler and Spokesperson Duncan Macintosh have a royal audience with His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand at the King's Klai Kangwan Palace in the coastal city of Hua Hin. They discussed the International Rice Genebank and IRRI's work in Thailand.

29 August: 1991, H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhom of Thailand visits IRRI to witness the signing of a Thailand-IRRI memorandum of understanding for regional research on deepwater rice.

30 August: 1962, Philan-thropist Laurance Spelman Rockefeller (center in photo), son of John D., visits IRRI; 2008, in a Newsweek article, The price of survival, IRRI DG Robert Zeigler reacts to the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) new Asian poverty line. The revised poverty lines don't reflect a sudden drop in conditions. Instead, they represent an attempt by development econo- mists to, as Dr. Zeigler puts it, get their "arms around the definition of poverty and articulate it in a way that [policymakers] can use effectively." To accomplish that, ADB proposed scrapping the $1-per-day poverty measure popularized by the World Bank in 1990 as an estimate of the per-person cost of procuring the 2,100 calories a day deemed necessary for human health.

31 August: 1969, IRRI receives the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding; 1993, Vo-Tong Xuan, IRRI trustee and research fellow, wins the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service. 

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