[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Swaminathan.jpg” caption=”Professor M.S. Swaminathan, the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Visiting Lecturer, will present two lectures at McMaster next week. Photo courtesy of Rama Singh.”]Visiting lecturer Professor M.S. Swaminathan will present two lectures at McMaster next week.

A public lecture on Biodiversity, Biotechnology and Food Security will be held on Wednesday, July 11 at the University Club at 7 p.m. and a biology seminar on Science and the UN Millennium Development Goals will be held on Thursday, July 12 at the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery (MDCL), Room 1105 at 12 noon. Admission is free.

A plant geneticist by training, Swaminathan's contributions to the agricultural renaissance of India have led to his being widely referred to as the scientific leader of the green revolution movement.

His advocacy of sustainable agriculture leading to an ever-green revolution makes him an acknowledged world leader in the field of sustainable food security.

The International Association of Women and Development conferred on him the first international award for significant contributions to promoting the knowledge, skill and technological empowerment of women in agriculture and for his pioneering role in mainstreaming gender considerations in agriculture and rural development.

Swaminathan currently holds the UNESCO chair in Ecotechnology at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai (Madras), India and formerly served as the Chairman of the National Commission on Farmers, Government of India. He was also awarded the Mahatma Ghandi prize of UNESCO in 2000.

Swaminathan is a Fellow of many of the leading scientific academies of India and the world, including the Royal Society of London and the US National Academy of Sciences. He has received 50 honorary doctorate degrees from universities around the world.

The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Visiting Lecturer is presented by the Department of Biology in collaboration with the Centre for Peace Studies, the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, and the Office of International Affairs.

For more information, please contact Rama Singh at singh@mcmaster.ca.