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onald P. Cantrell accepted the IRRI Board of Trustees offer of a second five-year contract as director general, to the end of May 2007. In addition to his overall management responsibilities, Dr. Cantrell will focus especially on the challenge of ensuring the institutes continued financial stability during a time of ongoing reductions in donor funding, explained Board Chair Angeline Kamba. Dr. Cantrells career in international agricultural research began in 1981, when he headed the Purdue University Farming Systems Team in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), in West Africa.
ant Singh Virmani, plant breeder and deputy head of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biochemistry, will receive this years International Service in Crop Science Award from the Crop Science Society of America at its annual meeting in November. During the past 23 years at IRRI, Dr. Virmani has provided and shared convincing evidence of the potential for irrigated hybrid rice in the tropics, and hybrid rice varieties are now grown commercially in Vietnam, India, Philippines, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. In May, during a hybrid rice symposium in Vietnam, Dr. Virmani received the Agriculture and Rural Development Medal for his contribution to the advancement of hybrid rice technology in that country. Tom Mew, IRRI plant pathologist and head of the Entomology and Plant Pathology Division, was named a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society at a ceremony in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July. Dr. Mews achievements have spanned nearly three decades in plant pathology, breeding and agronomy, balancing scientific depth with practical approaches to disease control that benefit rice growers throughout Asia. His promotion of pathology research programs in the developing world has produced a cadre of plant pathologists who now lead worldwide efforts in crop protection for rice. J.K. Ladha, IRRI soil-fertility and plant-nutrition specialist, will become a
Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy at its annual meeting in November. Dr. Ladhas research focuses on developing and implementing farm-nutrient management and crop-establishment strategies that minimize environmental effects and maximize farmers income. Dr. Ladha chairs the Commission of Soil Biology of the International Union of Soil Science. Darshan Brar, IRRI plant breeder, was named an Honorary Fellow of the Crop Science Society of the Philippines for 2002 at the societys annual conference in April. Dr. Brar is recognized for his pioneering work on wide hybridization of rice. He has introgressed genes from wild species for resistance to such diseases as bacterial blight, brown planthopper, blast and tungro.
Rice Today September 2002
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Dr. Virmani (second from right), Professor Yuan Long-ping (right), and Dat Van Tran (partly hidden) are honored by Nguyen Cong Tan (second from left), the deputy prime minister of Vietnam, for their contributions to the advancement of hybrid rice technology in Vietnam.