Norman Borlaug

Norman Ernest Borlaug ( born March 25, 1914 in Cresco, Iowa; † 12 September 2009 in Dallas, Texas ) was an American agronomist, who in 1970 received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts and work to improve agriculture.

Biography

Norman E. Borlaug was born in 1914 as the son of a farmer and attended by 1932 high school in his hometown of Cresco. Then he studied Forestry and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Minnesota and graduated in 1937 with a Bachelor of Science degree. His promotion came in 1941 after he worked 1938-1939 in the Forest Service of the United States. In 1941 he became a lecturer at the University of Iowa, from 1942 to 1944, he worked as a researcher in the laboratory of the " DuPont de Nemours Foundation".

1944 Borlaug employees in the research to increase the wheat, corn and beans products from the Rockefeller Foundation through biotechnology in Mexico, which became known as wheat revolution. He worked there until 1960. Between 1964 and 1979 he headed the wheat Department of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico finishing.

During its work, Borlaug developed several high-yielding varieties of wheat, which he also laid the foundation for the cultivation of these varieties in Pakistan and the Middle East. Particularly well known is the high-yield wheat Mexico, which a gene has been bred for " dwarfism " a Japanese variety. This wheat can carry the heavy ear due to its short and compact stem, without kinking. Especially in India, where the wheat is grown since 1962, the revenues increased in ten years to almost three-fold. Similar successes have been achieved through improved rice varieties in China. With his efforts, Borlaug is now regarded as an essential initiator of the so-called Green Revolution in developing countries, millions of people saved from starvation.

The Michigan State University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1971. Four years later an honorary doctorate from the University of Hohenheim, he was awarded. For his life's work was Norman Borlaug, who came into the general public almost forgotten, on 17 July 2007 with the highest honor the United States, the Golden Congressional Medal of Honor awarded. On September 12, 2009 Borlaug died in Dallas at a cancer.