E Biographical Sketches

NORMAN BORLAUG (Chairman) is a consultant in the Office of the Director General, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT) in Mexico City and a professor at Texas A&M University. A specialist in wheat breeding, agronomy, plant pathology, and other areas, he is one of the best-known spokesmen and ambassadors for tropical agriculture. He is particularly renowned for creating the high-yielding wheat varieties that have transformed the grain supplies of India, Pakistan, and other nations. A native of Cresco, Iowa, he is now a citizen of both the United States and Mexico and is the recipient of more than 30 honorary degrees. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

RATTAN LAL has been a member of the department of agronomy at Ohio State University since 1987. In 1968 he received his Ph.D. in agronomy (soil physics) from Ohio State University. From 1969 to 1987, he worked as a soil physicist and coordinator of upland production systems with the International institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria. His research interests include soil erosion and its control, soil structure and management, soil compaction and drainage, ecological impact of tropical deforestation, viable alternatives to shifting cultivation, and sustainable management of soil and water resources.

DAVID PIMENTEL is professor of insect ecology and agricultural sciences at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. He received his Ph.D. in entomology from Cornell in 1951 and was chief of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) tropical research laboratory in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and project leader of the USPHS technology development laboratory in Savannah, Georgia, before joining the department of entomology and limnology at Cornell. His particular interests are ecosystems management and pollution control, energy and land resources in the food system, and pest control. He has served as both chairman and member of numerous panels and committees of the National Research Council, including some on biology and renewable resources, agriculture and the environment, and innovative mosquito control. He served as chairman of the Board on Science and Technology for International Development from 1975-1980 and of the Environmental Studies Board of the National Research Council from 1981-1982.

HUGH POPENOE is professor of soils, agronomy, botany, and geography, and director of the Center for Tropical Agriculture and International Programs (Agriculture) at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in soils science from the University of Florida in 1960. Since then his principal research interest has been in the area of tropical agriculture and land use. His early work on shifting cultivation is one of the major contributions to this system. He has traveled and worked in most of the countries in the tropical areas of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. His current interests include improving indigenous agricultural systems of small landholders, particularly with the integration of livestock and crops. Currently, he is on the international advisory committee of the National Science Foundation and serves as U.S. board member for the International Foundation of Science.

NOEL D. VIETMEYER, study director and technical writer for this study, is a senior program officer of the Board on Science and Technology for International Development. A New Zealander with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, he now works on innovations in science and technology that are important for the future of developing countries.