The IRRI Pioneer Interviews
Conducted by Gene Hettel

Rice Today is publishing edited excerpts in the magazine from selected interviews with rice pioneers. As one of the activities to commemorate IRRI’s 50th, we have already logged around 100 hours in conversation with nearly 50 pioneers (with more planned), ranging from researchers who first roamed the rice plots with IRRI’s first director general Robert F. Chandler, Jr., to others recently retired, to researchers' spouses and children, and to the farmers themselves.

Through 2010, Rice Today is featuring, along with the interview excerpts in the magazine, full transcripts (see Peter Jennings, Carolyn Moomaw, Nyle Brady, Kwanchai Gomez, and Usha Palaniswamy examples below; Sardar Jagjit Singh Hara, forthcoming) and occasional full video productions (as with the Jennings interview) here on the Rice Today Web site. Click each pioneer photo below for a YouTube clip. Further below is a link to a diverse cross-section of responses to one question: As IRRI approaches its 50th anniversary in 2010, what do you see as the Institute's greatest challenge?

Luck is the residue of design                    The problem solver
Peter Jennings                                             Nyle C. Brady