Ex-UP president named top alumnus of US university

Former University of the Philippines (UP) president Emil Javier has been named the recipient of the top alumnus award of a United States university for academic year 2004-2005.

Javier, chairman of the Asia Rice Foundation (ARF), will receive the prestigious Madhuri and Jagdish N. Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In a letter to Javier informing him of his selection as the top alumnus for academic year 2004-2005, Richard Herman, interim chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said:

"Your work and achievements as a scholar, administrator, leader and international science policy-maker, as well as your commitment to eliminating poverty and enhancing food security worldwide, are of such distinction that you have been chosen for this award."

Javier will receive the award in an evening banquet at the University of Illinois campus in early 2005, Herman said. Javier was requested to present a lecture on a topic of his choice, "but focused on pubic service and some aspects of food security, poverty alleviation or biotechnology research in a global context."

Javier earned his Master of Science in Agronomy from the University of Illinois in 1964. The previous year, he finished his Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at UP Los Baños.

He went on to pursue his doctorate in plant breeding at Cornell University in New York, completing it in 1969.

Javier was the founding director of the UP Los Baños Institute of Plant Breeding. He later served as UPLB chancellor in 1979 at age 38.

He was appointed Minister of Science in the mid-1980s, after which he was tapped by the Netherlands-based International Services for National Agricultural Research.

Subsequently, he was chosen director-general of the Taiwan-based Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC). It was during his term as AVRDC administrator that he was elected the 17th UP president.

He presently chairs the Asia Rice Foundation, a non-profit organization that aims to mobilize and provide support for research, education, cultural and advocacy movements that promote public appreciation of the role of rice in the diverse cultures of Asia.

Javier is also the vice president of the National Academy of Science and Technology, and a board member of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotechnology Applications-South East Asia Center Philippines, and Nutrition Center of the Philippines.