Dr. M.S. Swaminathan is a renowned agricultural scientist of international repute. He was former Secretary - DARE, Secretary - Agriculture & Cooperation & Director General - IRRI, Philippines.

He is a fellow of many leading scientific academies of India and the world, including the Royal Society of London & The UN National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. M.S. Swaminathan has been acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the twenty most influential Asians of the 20^th century and one of the only three from India, the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindra Nath Tagore.

He has been described as "the Father of Economic Ecology" by the United Nations Environment Programme and by Javier Perez de Cuellar, former Secretary General of the United Nations, as "a living legend who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction".

He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 1971.