1 June:1961, Sterling Wortman initiates the world rice germplasm collection at IRRI; 1972, Ralph
W. Cummings, Sr. (photo), arrives as IRRI’s second director general, but
departs in September to become the first
director general of ICRISAT; 2001, Muhammad Yunus, founder and managing director of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, winner of the
1994 World Food Prize,
future winner of the
2006 Nobel Peace Prize, and former member of the IRRI Board of Trustees (1988-94), visits the Institute and gives a seminar on
The role of technology in poverty alleviation; 2006,
the Crop, Soils, and Water Sciences (CSWS) Division and the entomology part of
the former Entomology and Plant Pathology Division (EPPD)
officially integrate
to become the Crop and Environmental Sciences (CES) Division; 2009,
IRRI and the CGIAR are featured in the
June issue of National Geographic Magazine in its feature,
The global food crisis: The end of plenty.
5 June:1967, IRRI kicks off its first 6-month international rice production training course with 35 participants from 6 countries;
1996, IRRI presents the International Rice Award in the form of a Gold Medal to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej in Bangkok; 2001, more than 100 participants from PhilRice, IIRR, ADB, PCARRD, the IRRI Collaborators' Center, and the Los Baños Science Community attend an Inter-institutional
Communication Workshop at IRRI; 2008, China
gives one of its most prestigious scientific awards, the International
Science and Technology Award of the People’s Republic of China, to
IRRI for making an “important contribution to improve grain output,
agricultural efficiency, and the income of farmers.” China State Councilor
Liu Yandong presents the award to IRRI Director General Robert S. Zeigler at
a special award ceremony in Beijing
6 June: 2006, His Excellency W.M.
Senevirathna, Ambassador of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to
the Philippines, visits IRRI.
7 June:1988, Robert F. Chandler, Jr.
(photo), IRRI’s first director general, receives the
1988 World Food Prize. View below a 8:07 YouTube video on the occasion of Dr. Chandler receiving this
award; 2004, Dr. Mutsuo Iwamoto, president of the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences
(JIRCAS),
visits IRRI; 2007, Ren Wang, deputy
director general for research, gives his farewell seminar. He departs IRRI to become
CGIAR director
on 23 July 2007. He gives an overview of the major developments and
achievements in IRRI’s research and product portfolio that he has witnessed in
the past 7-1/2 years.
9 June:
1959,Rockefeller
and Ford Foundation representatives (photo) discuss the feasibility of
establishing IRRI and its possible location in Los Baños,
Philippines;2003, Harold John Nesbitt is appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on the Queen's Birthday Honours List for "Service to agriculture as project manager and agronomist for the
Cambodia-IRRI-Australia Project
(CIAP).
13 June:1986, A.U. Khan, IRRI agricultural engineer, receives the International Inventor’s Award for Industry from King Carl Gustaf of Sweden at ceremonies held in Stockholm; 2001, in Beijing, the China State Council presents Gurdev
Khush, IRRI principal plant breeder, with
the
International Scientific and Technical Cooperation Award of the People's
Republic of China; 2007, the project, Implementation plans to disseminate submergence-tolerance rice varieties and
associated new production practices to Southeast Asia, is launched
during a planning workshop at IRRI; 2008,
IRRI and the Institute for Investigation of Agriculture Mozambique (IIAM)
conduct the first-ever Farm
Mechanization Field Day in southern Mozambique.
15 June: 1999, IRRI receives three
Gold Awards
and Bronze Award for its work on the
1997-98 Corporate
Report on Biodiversity, 1999-2000 Publications Catalog, the Riceworld
Web site, and
photography depicting germplasm conservation in Bhutan. The Publications Catalog also receives an
Outstanding Professional Skill Award; 2000,
a major 3-day
scientific gathering honoring the memory of Dr. Robert F. Chandler, Jr. kicked
off at Cornell University in
Ithaca, New York
(proceedings at left); 2006,
Dr. A. Colin McClung, former IRRI assistant director (1964-1966; photo at
right)) and associate
director (1967-1971) shares the 2006
World Food Prize; 2009,
the keys to the new office of the
IRRI Fund Singapore (IFS) are formally handed over by a
representative of Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
17
June:2000, more than 150 scientists,
scholars, and dependents attend the IRRI alumni reunion held at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. The reunion followed the international
symposium on "Rice Research and Production in the 21st Century" honoring the
late Dr. Robert F. Chandler, Jr. held 15-17 June at Cornell (see above);
click photo above left to see larger: (from left) Loyd Johnson
(Engineering); Randy Barker (Economics); Ben Vergara (Plant Physiology);
Akira Tanaka (Plant Physiology); Lina Vergara (Library); Kwanchai Gomez
(Statistics); Colin McClung (Deputy Director); S.K. De Datta (Agronomy);
Ronnie Coffman (Plant Breeding); Harold
Kauffman (Plant Pathology); Hank Beachell (Plant Breeding); and Amir Khan
(Engineering);
2002, new IRRI intranet portal officially debuts; 2007,
Gene Hettel, head of Communication and Publications Services (photo, right), wins the
2007
International Award of Excellence from the Association for
Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human
Sciences in the United States.
19 June:2000, Genoveva Loresto
(at left in photo) retires after 37 years of outstanding and valuable service to IRRI in many capacities including
training and from senior associate scientist to project scientist in the
Genetic Resources Center.
22 June:2005, IRRI introduces is Rice News Worldwide
facility; 2007, IRRI is awarded a
certificate for ISO 14001, which is an internationally recognized standard for
environmentally sustainable systems, and as such demonstrates IRRI’s commitment to environmental sustainability; 2009,Gurdev Khush, former principal plant breeder at
IRRI, begins a 5-year stint as eminent professor at the Graduate School of
Biotechnology of Kyung-Hee University in Suwon, South Korea.
23 June:2008, IRRI
hosts a 3-day
International Conference on Rice Plant-hoppers, which have
devastated millions of acres in southern China and Vietnam in recent years
where increasing insecticide resistance has become a concern.
26 June:1996, IRRI Web site
is launched at www.irri.org.
Revamping of the site has continued throughout the years.
27 June:1997,
250 former IRRI scientists, scholars, and dependents kick-off the 3-day 3rd IRRI Alumni Reunion
in Gainesville, Florida; 2007,
Thailand's Ministry of Agricultural and Cooperatives and IRRI
sign an agreement to
expand
their existing bilateral cooperation in the field of rice variety development
to add increased value to Thailand's important staple. The agreement was
signed by Minister Thira Sutabutr (right) and IRRI DG Robert S. Zeigler
(photo).
1 June: 
officially integrate
to become the Crop and Environmental Sciences (CES) Division; 
2 June: 
7 June: 
t ceremonies held in Stockholm; 
Web site, and
gnized standard for
environmentally sustainable systems, and as such demonstrates IRRI’s commitment to environmental sustainability; 
