1/14/04

NOBEL PRIZE LAUREATE NORMAN BORLAUG TO LECTURE AT AUBURN

NORMAN BORLAUG

AUBURN -- Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution and winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in increasing crop yields and saving millions worldwide from starvation, will lecture at Auburn University on Jan. 22.

Borlaug will discuss the importance of biotechnology in keeping a growing world population fed when he speaks as part of AU's 2004 E.T. York Distinguished Lecturer Series.

The 89-year-old Bolaug's lecture, "From the Green Revolution to the Gene Revolution: Our 21st-century Challenge," will be at 7 p.m., CST, in the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public, as is a 5:45 p.m. reception for Borlaug, in Ballroom B.

Borlaug, a native of Cresco, Iowa, is a distinguished professor of international agriculture and professor of soil and crop sciences at Texas A&M University.

He is known worldwide for developing hardier, higher-yielding and more nutritious wheat plants in Mexico and introducing them, along with better agricultural practices, into India, Pakistan and other nations, saving those countries from famine and triggering what became known as the Green Revolution.

Though hardly a household name in the United States, Borlaug internationally is considered a leading American of our age and is credited with saving more lives than any human in history.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Borlaug's extensive list of honors includes the highest scientific awards given by the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and the National Science Foundation. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, holds 50 honorary doctorate degrees and belongs to the academies of science in 12 nations.

Borlaug received his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D., in plant pathology from the University of Minnesota.

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CONTACT: Bill Hardy, 334/844-5620.