4 October:2003, an exhibition, with IRRI contributions, on the
Art of Rice: Spirit and Sustenance in Asia opens a 7-month run at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History on the UCLA campus in California, USA.
7 October:
2008, Achim Dobermann and Marco Wopereis, the DDG-Rs for IRRI and
the Africa Rice Center (WARDA),
respectively, discuss how the two centers are working together to improve
rice production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). After their presentations,
WARDA DG Papa Seck and IRRI DG Robert Zeigler join them in a panel
discussion and answer questions from the audience (photo, from left, Drs.
Wopereis, Zeigler, Seck, and Dobermann). See the YouTube video below.
8
October: 2001,
with more than 5,000 images available, IRRI’s Rice Photo Bank debuts online at http://rice-photos.irri.org
(later moved to flickr); 2009, during a
book launch at the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank in
Manila, IRRI Director General Robert Zeigler reviews the importance of the
long-term IRRI-ADB partnership in conducting rice research. See YouTube
video clip below.
9
October:2006, the week-long 2nd International Rice Congress
brings to New Delhi, India, 1,383 rice researchers, traders, millers, farmers,
and agriculture ministers,
including 400 delegates from 45 countries other than India. This largest
gathering ever of rice workers deliberate on various aspects of rice
production, commerce, and international cooperation with a special focus on
the latest research, science, and technology; 2008,
IRRI and the National Taiwan
University (NTU) reach a research cooperation
agreement that establishes a partnership in rice-related research to
boost global rice production. The agreement, signed by NTU President Lee Si-chen
and IRRI Director General Robert Zeigler, comes at a time when global rice stocks are at
their lowest in a quarter of a century.
10 October:1976, An IRRI group (photo, right) led by Director General Nyle
Brady travels to China for a 3-week trip that takes them to most of the
institutions conducting rice research as well as rice-growing communes where
they interview actual farmers. Others in the group are economist Randy
Barker,agronomist S.K. De Datta, breeder G.S.Khush, and pathologist S.H. Ou.
12 October:2007, IRRI
is awarded the 6th Iue Asia Pacific Culture Prize during the Asia
Pacific Forum of the Awaji Conference in Kobe, Japan. The prize
certificate states (left): "Your institute has made many great contributions
to reduce poverty and solve environmental problems, and through your efforts,
we expect that in the future you will further lead the way to a multicultural
society in the Asia Pacific Region."
13 October:2009, In
Yangon, Myanmar, U Ohn Myint, deputy minister of the Myanmar Ministry of
Agriculture and Irrigation; Carmen Thoennissen of the Swiss Agency for
Development and Cooperation; and Noel Magor, head of IRRI Training Center
officially launch the Web site Good
Agricultural Practices (GAP) for Irrigated Rice developed by IRRI
through the International Rice Research Consortium.
15 October:1986,
Philip-pine President Corazon C. Aquino (photo) dedicates IRRI’s new Biotechnology and Seed Health Building to the rice scientists and farmers of the world during her World Food Day visit; 2001, a long tradition of technical reporting on rice research at IRRI comes to an end with the publishing of the
last Program
Report (for 2000; cover, left); 2004,
IRRI's Rice Knowledge Bank
passes 5 million hits since its launching in September 2002; 2007,
Gary C. Jahn, entomologist and IRRI coordinator for the Greater Mekong
Subregion, is honored at the
International Plant Protection Congress in Glasgow, Scotland, for
his major contributions to the promotion of global plant protection;
Why IRRI scientists
believe they can create climate change-proof rice appears
on CNN TV as part of the series on Eco Solutions. Robert Zeigler and David
Mackill (at right in screen capture) are interviewed. Click here to view the 2:36 video on
the CNN Web site.
16 October: 1982,
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (center in photo below flanked by
agronomist S.K. De Datta and Director General M.S. Swaminathan) visits IRRI to
give an address on World Food Day;1987,
Swaminathan Hall (housing IPMO and the Training Center) is dedicated;
1989, K.J. Lampe, IRRI director general, accepts Indonesia’s Bintang Jasa Utama, or Highest Merit Award during the World Food Day ceremonies
in Wonogiri, Central Java; 1995, The 3rd International Rice Genetics Symposium (Rice Genetics III) begins, attracting around 500 scientists.
17 October:1986, R.F. Chandler, Jr., IRRI’s first director general, receives the U.S. Presidential End Hunger Award in Washington, D.C.
18 October:1996, G.S. Khush, IRRI principal plant breeder, and H.M. Beachell, former IRRI plant breeder,
share the
1996 World Food Prize
in Des Moines, Iowa; 2006, IRRI participates in
the
5th World Rice Commerce Conference (WRC2006) in Ho Chi Minh,
Vietnam, attracting a record crowd of more than 200 paying delegates
from around the world.
20 October: 2002, EPPD Head Tom Mew wins the Friendship Prize 2002 awarded by the Jiangsu Provincial Government for his contribution to rice protection and production in China.
21 October: 2008, at a meeting of the
10-nationAssociation
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in
the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, ministers of agriculture unanimously
endorses the
seven-point action plan presented by
IRRI Development Director Duncan Macintosh. ASEAN includes two of the
world’s largest rice exporters, Thailand and Vietnam, and several importing
nations as well; Rice Today magazine—the voice of rice—becomes even stronger
with a new
partnership announced in Thailand between IRRI and The Rice Trader, Inc. (TRT),
publisher of the world’s premier publication on rice trade issues.
22 October:1998, IRRI is awarded a
Silver award in the region’s first Asian Innovation Awards conducted by
The Far Eastern
Economic Review; 2000, IRRI hosts and kicks off the 5-day 4th International Rice Genetics Symposium (Rice Genetics IV) with more than 500 participants from 28 countries, the largest meeting ever held at headquarters.
23 October:2001, IRRI soil scientist Roland Buresh is selected as a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) and IRRI plant breeder Sant Virmani is selected as a Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA).
24 October: 1981, the N.C. Brady
Laboratory (housing social sciences, plant breeding and genetics, and the
Genetic Resources Center) is dedicated to IRRI’s 3rd Director General
(1973-81; photo right).
25 October: 2009, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas
Vilsack, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney, and Philippine
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap visit IRRI to discuss rice production in
the Philippines and how rice research can help improve the health and
welfare of farmers and consumers, result in a better environment, and cope
with climate change. In the photo (from left) Ambassador Kenney, Secretary
Vilsack, IRRI Director General Robert Zeigler, and Secretary Yap have just
symbolically harvested some rice panicles in the IRRI research plots (see YouTube video below).
26 October:1966,
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson (in photo below right with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and IRRI DG Robert
Chandler) visits IRRI (see YouTube video below left); 2000, Senior associate scientist Alberto Barrion is named Outstanding Local Scientist for 2000 by the CGIAR, in Washington, D.C.; 2007,
IRRI DG Robert S. Zeigler, is awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow; 2009,
the Municipality of Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines, unanimously approves a council resolution
that extends to IRRI "our deepest gratitude and thanks for helping and
giving their all-out support in the form of financial/medical
assistance and other materials/goods to our constituencies as victims of Typhoon Ondoy on 26
September 2009."
28 October:2004, During the CGIAR annual meeting in Mexico, the
Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains receives the King Baudouin Award and a team of IRRI scientists wins the Science Award for Outstanding Scientific Article for Enhanced iron and zinc accumulation in transgenic rice with the ferritin gene” published in
Plant Science.
28 October:1993, Philippine
President Fidel V. Ramos visits IRRI to open the third session of the
Environmental Committee of the International Federation of Agricultural
Producers.
29 October:2002, IRRI Day, one of the early events of the 2002 CGIAR annual general meeting (AGM), brought more than 280 visitors—led by CGIAR chairman Ian Johnson—to IRRI Headquarters; 2003, Filipino researchers at IRRI (this time in the Genetic Resources Center,
photo) win, for the third consecutive year, the CGIAR Excellence in Science Award for a scientific support team during the CGIAR’s Annual General Meeting in Nairobi.
30 October: 2001, IRRI is the only CG center to pick up two Excellence in Science Awards during the CGIAR’s Annual General Meeting in Washington. The Institute’s hybrid rice breeding team wins the award for the Outstanding Scientific Support Team, and the paper,
Genetic diversity and disease control in
rice, published in Nature, is chosen as the Outstanding Scientific Article; 2002, during the CGIAR’s Annual General Meeting in Manila, the Institute’s
biodiversity project team (photo,right) wins
the award for the Outstanding
Scientific Support Team;2006,
IRRI contributes to a major
report published by the British
government on the economics of climate change, authored by Sir
Nicholas Stern, which suggests that global warming could shrink the global
economy by 20%; 2007, Darshan Brar (photo, left), head of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology, is chosen as one
of two winners of the Koshihikari International Rice Prize for 2007. The Prize recognizes
rice researchers working in universities and international, national, and
local agricultural research stations.
31 October:1961,
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman (left center in photo at right) visits IRRI; 2003, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf
launches The International Year of Rice 2004 at the United Nations.
History on the UCLA campus in California, USA.
9
October: 
18 October: 
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Economic Review; 
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28 October: 
