Ingo Potrykus

Until 1999 he was full professor of Plant Sciences, in particular plant biotechnology, at the Institute of Plant Sciences of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, a position he had held since 1 June 1987. His research group applied genetic technology to contribute to food security in developing countries.

Ingo Potrykus was born on 5 December 1933 in Hirschberg/Schlesien, Germany. He studied biology at the University of Cologne and obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute. After several years at the Institute of Plant Physiology, University of Hohenheim, he became research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Genetics. In 1976 he moved to Basel to set up the plant genetic engineering area at the Friedrich Miescher Institute.

Motivated by the problem of the looming food crisis, malnutrition in developing countries and the potential of genetic technology to contribute to food security, his research group devoted itself to genetic engineering projects aimed at improving the stability and nutritional quality of rice, wheat, millet and cassava crops. The research focused on problems that cannot be solved with traditional methods. Results and technology were transferred to developing countries through international research centres, without costs or intellectual property restrictions. The best-known result is “Golden Rice”, a new variety of rice providing provitamin A, widely regarded as a model example of how to reduce malnutrition in developing countries in a sustainable way. After his retirement, Ingo Potrykus, as Chairman of the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board, began to devote his energies to helping subsistence farmers overcome the obstacles of a GM crop. He eventually succeeded in establishing collaborations with 14 institutions for rice cultivation in India, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.