Significant Dates in IRRI History

June

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.

2 June: 1995, Rudy Aquino, IRRI senior assistant scientist, is named one of “20 great Asians” by Asiaweek Magazine; 2006, IRRI, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) of Vietnam and the World Bank, formally launches the Environmental Radio Soap Opera for Rural Vietnam and announces an environmental initiative in conjunction with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

3 June: 2005, the Web site of IRRI's Environmental Agenda, GreenRice.Net, is launched.

5 June: 1967, IRRI kicks off its first 6-month international rice production training course with 35 participants from 6 countries; 1985, the first IRRI commemorative stamp (left) is released by the Philippine Postal and Postage office for issuing on IRRI’s 25th anniversary; 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 Interinstitutional Communication Workshop at IRRI.

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. Click here to view a 8:08 video program 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.

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.

17 June: 2002, new IRRI intranet portal officially debuts; 2007, Gene Hettel, head of Communication and Publications Services (photo), 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.

21 June: 2002, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research hosts the first Steering Committee Meeting of the Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE) in New Delhi, India.

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.

24 June: 2002, IRRI cross number IR80000 (photo) is seeded.

25 June: 2001, IRRI's second director general, Ralph W. Cummings, Jr. (photo right), passes away at the age of 90. He was director general only briefly in 1972 before becoming the first director general of ICRISAT.

26 June: 1996, IRRI Web site is launched at www.irri.org. Revamping of the site has continued throughout the years.

27 June: 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).