Nobel-winning scientist Norman Borlaug dies

Borlaug died just before 11 p.m. on Saturday at his home in Dallas from complications of cancer, said school spokeswoman Kathleen Phillips. Phillips said Borlaug's granddaughter told her about his death. Borlaug was a distinguished professor at the university in College Station, Texas.

The Nobel committee honored Borlaug in 1970 for his contributions to high-yield crop varieties and bringing other agricultural innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives. Thanks to the green revolution, world food production more than doubled between 1960 and 1990. In Pakistan and India, two of the nations that benefited most from the new crop varieties, grain yields more than quadrupled over the period.

“We would like his life to be a model for making a difference in the lives of others and to bring about efforts to end human misery for all mankind,” his children said in a statement. “One of his favorite quotes was, 'Reach for the stars. Although you will never touch them, if you reach hard enough, you will find that you get a little 'star dust' on you in the process.”'

Equal parts scientist and humanitarian, the Iowa-born Borlaug realized improved crop varieties were just part of the answer, and pressed governments for farmer-friendly economic policies and improved infrastructure to make markets accessible. A 2006 book about Borlaug is titled ”The Man Who Fed the World.”  “He has probably done more and is known by fewer people than anybody that has done that much,” said Dr. Ed Runge, retired head of Texas A&M University's Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and a close friend who persuaded Borlaug teach at the school. “He made the world a better place -- a much better place. He had people helping him, but he was the driving force.”

Borlaug began the work that led to his Nobel in Mexico at the end of World War II. There he used innovative breeding techniques to produce disease-resistant varieties of wheat that produced much more grain than traditional strains.

He and others later took those varieties and similarly improved strains of rice and corn to Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa.

“More than any other single person of his age, he has helped to provide bread for a hungry world,” Nobel Peace Prize committee chairman Aase Lionaes said in presenting the award to Borlaug. “We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace.”

During the 1950s and 1960s, public health improvements fueled a population boom in underdeveloped nations, leading to concerns that agricultural systems could not keep up with growing food demand. Borlaug's work often is credited with expanding agriculture at just the moment such an increase in production was most needed.

”We got this thing going quite rapidly,” Borlaug told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview. “It came as a surprise that something from a Third World country like Mexico could have such an impact.”  His successes in the 1960s came just as books like “The Population Bomb” were warning readers that mass starvation was inevitable.

”Three or four decades ago, when we were trying to move technology into India, Pakistan and China, they said nothing could be done to save these people, that the population had to die off,” he said in 2004.

Borlaug often said wheat was only a vehicle for his real interest, which was to improve people's lives.

“We must recognize the fact that adequate food is only the first requisite for life,” he said in his Nobel acceptance speech. “For a decent and humane life we must also provide an opportunity for good education, remunerative employment, comfortable housing, good clothing and effective and compassionate medical care.”  In Mexico, Borlaug was known both for his skill in breeding plants and for his eagerness to labor in the fields himself, rather than to let assistants do all the hard work.

He remained active well into his 90s, campaigning for the use of biotechnology to fight hunger and working on a project to fight poverty and starvation in Africa by teaching new drought-resistant farming methods.

Honors bestowed on Borlaug at a glance 

 1970: Nobel Peace Prize

 1970: Election to the US National Academy of Sciences

 1970: Aztec Eagle, Government of Mexico

 1971: Outstanding Agricultural Achievement Award, World Farm Foundation (USA)

 1980: Jefferson Award, American Institute for Public Service

 1982: Distinguished Achievement Award in Food and Agricultural Sciences, Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (USA)

 1985: The Presidential World without Hunger Award: Educator/Scientist category (USA)

 1997: Jefferson Lifetime Achievement Award (USA)

 1998: The Americas Award, The Americas Foundation (USA)

 1998: Altruistic Green Revolution Award, Indian Council of Agricultural Research

 1999: Recognition Award for Contributions to World Wheat and Maize Research and Production, Republic of El Salvador

 1999: Dedication of Norman E. Borlaug Center for Southern Crop Improvement, Texas A&M University

 2000: Vannevar Bush Award, National Science Foundation (USA)

 2000: Memorial Centennial Medial of the N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (Russia)

 2002: Public Welfare Medal, National Academy of Sciences (USA)

 2002: The Rotary International Award for World Understanding and Peace; Barcelona, Spain

 2002: The Philip Hauge Abelson Prize, American Association for the Advancement of Science

 2003: Award for Distinguished Achievements to Science and Medicine, American Council of Science and Health

 2004: National Medal of Science (USA)

 2006: Padma Vibhushan in Science and Engineering, awarded by the Government of India

 2006: Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture created as part of the Texas A&M University System

 2007: Congressional Gold Medal, received

 2007: Texas A&M University honorary doctor of letters degree (Borlaug received more than 50 honorary degrees in his career.)