Significant Dates in IRRI History

July

1 July: 1973, Nyle C. Brady (photo) arrives as IRRI’s third director general.

7 July: 2004, a soap opera series designed to communicate integrated pest management (IPM) principles and practices to rice farmers in Vietnam is launched in Vinh Long, Vietnam.  

10 July: 1963, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand visit IRRI.

11 July: 2007, IRRI is one of more than 110 institutions that participates in the First International PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference held at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A paper presented by communications staff members is titled "Scholarly Publishing Initiatives at IRRI: Linking Users to Public Goods via Open Access."

12 July: 1986, D.L. Umali, IRRI’s part-time liaison scientist for China, is conferred the rank and title of National Scientist of the Philippines by President Corazon C. Aquino.

13 July: 1997, IRRI’s 1995-96 Corporate Report, Listening to the Farmers, wins an Outstanding Professional Skill Award, two Gold Awards, and one Silver Award for writing, design, photograph, and cover at the annual international ACE Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, USA; 2000, Gurdev S. Khush received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from the University of Cambridge, England; 2004, the PETRRA Project, in partnership with the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and funded by DFID, UK, organizes a 1-day closing program to officially close and celebrate its successful 5-year run in the country.

14 July: 1988, Thomas Hargrove, head of Communication and Publications Services, receives the Professional Award and the Award of Excellence in International Affairs from the Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE); 1997, Ramiro Cabrera wins the 1997 International Award of Excellence from the Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) in the United States; 2004, The National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines, names Glenn Gregorio (photo), former IRRI international research fellow (and now IRRI's rice breeder for Africa), as the 2004 Outstanding Yong Scientist in the field of genetics.  

15 July: 2003, IRRI’s first storybook on rice for children, Graindell, is launched at the Museo Pambata in Manila.

16 July: 1995, IRRI wins the Gold Award and the Outstanding Professional Skill Award in the area of Graphic Design for a set of posters depicting rice activities including planting, harvesting, and distributing at the annual international ACE Conference in Burlington, Vermont, USA.

19 July: 2005, IRRI donates 70 computers to the Los Baños National High School (LBNHS) under a Memorandum of Agreement signed between the Institute and the school.

20 July: 2004, IRRI scientists begin a 1-week visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to assess the country’s rice R & D needs and explore possible opportunities for technical cooperation.

23 July: 1983, James Curtis Moomaw (photo, left), IRRI's first agronomist (1961-69), passes away. He established IRRI's long-term cropping experiment in 1963, which continues to this day.

26 July: 2005, Haruhiko Kuroda (at right in photo with IRRI DG Robert Zeigler (left) and Deputy Director General for Research Ren Wang), the new president of the Asian Development Bank, one of IRRI’s most important and committed donors, visits the Institute.

28 July: 2002, Tom Mew, IRRI plant pathologist and head of the Entomology and Plant Pathology Division, is named a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society (APS). 2007, For the first time, IRRI is featured on the front page of the presti-gious Wall Street Journal newspaper in New York and the front page of the Asian Wall Street Journal in Asia. An online version includes a slide show on rice and IRRI as well as a video report that summarizes the newspaper article.