The “World Food Prize“ 2020 was awarded to the internationally renowned soil scientist Prof. Rattan Lal. The laureate is “Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science“ and Director of the “Carbon Management and Sequestration Center“ of the Ohio State University, Columbus (USA). In 2015 Dr. Lal received an honorary doctorate of TU Dresden (TUD). Since founding of the FLORES Institute of the United Nations University he has been closely associated with the science location Dresden. Until 2018 he served as Chair of the International Advisory Board of UNU-FLORES.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGveq7GBC6c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xl_PA6-MVU&feature=youtu.be 

This prize with 250,000 US-Dollar was endowed in 1987 by the Peace Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug. The prize is said to be the “Nobel Prize” in the field of agriculture and nutrition. Doctor Lal receives the special distinction for his commitment over more than five decades and a variety of science contributions to the global food security, in particular connected to his holistic approaches to improve soil fertility of smallholder farms in the tropics. He has time and again succeeded in placing special emphasis to the soil as environmental medium and natural resource, both on the public and political stage. He was able to establish close links to other burning topics such as water scarcity, climate change, and sustainable development.

https://senr.osu.edu/our-people/rattan-lal

In recent years Dr. Lal gave several guest lectures in Dresden on the integrated themes soil, sustainable land use, and climate change , e.g. in 2017 on the occasion of the festive 40-year anniversary event of TUD’s “Centre for International Postgraduate Studies of Environmental Management (CIPSEM)”. Moreover, he contributed significantly to the concept and scientific content of the “Dresden Nexus Conference (DNC)“ of the years 2015 and 2017. In addition, a research collaboration with the soil scientists at the TUD Faculty of Environmental Sciences has materialized.