Punjab Agricultural University renamed their Department of Agronomy as Dr. Rattan Lal Laboratories

To honor World Food Prize laureate and renowned Ohio State scientist Rattan Lal, Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, India renamed their Department of Agronomy as Dr. Rattan Lal Laboratories.

“By honouring Dr. Rattan Lal, we are honouring ourselves,” Vice Chancellor Baldev Singh Dhillon remarked. “It is a matter of great pride and privilege to be associated with one of the most illustrious alumni of Punjab Agriculture University, who brought laurels to the university as well as The Ohio State University.”

The online ceremony was conducted on Lal’s birthday, September 5. While accepting the newly bestowed honor by Punjab Agriculture University, Lal referred to the event as his best birthday ever and expressed gratitude to the university for sowing in him the seeds of hard work and excellence. “It is a momentous occasion as Ohio State is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year,” Lal noted.

Ohio State’s 16th President Kristina M. Johnson, Gil Latz, vice provost for global strategies and international affairs, and Luis Cañas, interim director of international programs in agriculture, all participated in the ceremony. President Johnson called Lal an unbelievably outstanding and inspiring personality with a humble demeanor. While calling for deeper partnerships with Punjab Agriculture University, Johnson said she was confident that under Lal’s dedicated guidance, the two universities would achieve major milestones in providing safe food to the planet and stopping climate change.

Vice Chancellor Dhillon recognized the long relationship between the universities dating back to 1962 when Ohio State mentored a number of Punjab Agriculture scientists who brought back academic excellence and work culture to the university. “The result was the green revolution in India during the 1960s and 1970s in which Punjab Agriculture University played a motherly role, thereby transforming the country from being food deficit to a food exporting nation.”

In June, Lal was named the 2020 recipient of the World Food Prize. A faculty member at Ohio State for 33 years, Lal in 2019 became the first Ohio State scientist and the first soil scientist to ever receive the Japan Prize. He was listed by Thomson Reuters as among the top 1% of most-cited scientists in agriculture for 2014–2019 and among the world’s most influential scientific minds in 2015. Lal was recognized for his contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

Around the world, Lal has promoted agricultural techniques including eliminating plowing, retaining crop residue left after harvest, planting cover crops, minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers by reducing losses, and setting aside some land and water for nature, rather than for agriculture or other purposes. Each practice comes at low cost, affordable even to farmers in the developing world.

Read more: PAU renames department of agronomy after Dr Rattan Lal on his birthday