The 2011 Mahathir Science Award was conferred to CAE Member Yuan Longping, known as the “Father of Hybrid Rice”, in recognition of his outstanding achievements in rice production and contributions to food related researches.

Professor Yuan was born on September 7, 1930 in Beijing and was the first to develop hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s, which had been grown in dozens of countries in Africa, America, and Asia, thus providing a robust food source in high famine risk areas. His research led to the successful development of hybrid rice that has helped increased rice yield and food security worldwide.

“Rice is a very important staple food for us especially in the Asian region and there’s a lot of work that he has done that contribute towards this improvement in yield through this new variety of rice that he has pioneered through research,” the chairman of the Mahathir Science Award Foundation (MSAF), Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, said.

Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid also said in his announcement that “The success of Yuan’s hybrid rice has helped to increase rice yield in this century, and revolutionized global rice production and sustainability. At the same time, promotion of hybrid rice technology internationally has made remarkable contributions to solving food shortage problem in lots of Asian and African countries.”

Mahathir Science Award was launched in 2004, which is supposed to be bestowed on any scientist, institution or organization, worldwide, in recognition of contribution and innovation towards solving problems of the tropics through science and technology. (By Zhu Yu, November 2011; translated by Liu Chang)