Hugh Grant is new CEO of Monsanto

Hugh Grant, 45, has been elected the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Monsanto. Grant has been the chief operating officer (COO) of Monsanto for the past three years. He is a Monsanto veteran and has been with the company for the last 22 years.

While making the announcement, Monsanto Chairman Frank AtLee said, "Hugh Grant has been an integral part of Monsanto's strategic transition from a chemistry-based company to a company based largely on seeds and biotechnology traits."

Born on March 23, 1958, in Larkhall, Scotland, Grant earned a B.Sc. (agricultural zoology) degree with honors at Glasgow University. Grant also earned a post-graduate degree in agriculture at Edinburgh University and a MBA at the International Management Centre in Buckingham in the UK.

He joined the former Monsanto Company in 1981 as a product development representative in Scotland and spent the first 10 years of his career with Monsanto's agricultural business in a variety of European sales, product development and management responsibilities.

In 1991, Grant relocated to St. Louis as global strategy director of the agriculture division and was responsible for global management of the Roundup herbicide franchise. In 1995, he was named Monsanto's managing director for the Asia-Pacific region where he had responsibility for the company's agriculture, nutrition and pharmaceutical businesses in Southeast Asia.

In 1998, Grant was named co-president of the company's agriculture division. Since 2000, Grant served as the company's executive VP and COO.

Duggal chairperson of GEAC

The government has appointed VK Duggal, special secretary in the ministry of environment and forests, as the chairperson of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC). GEAC is the regulatory body that clears decisions on the import and release of genetically engineered organisms in India. It was earlier headed by an additional secretary Sushma Choudhary.

Seema Prakash receives inventor award

Dr Seema Prakash, founder –director, In Vitro International Pvt Ltd, Bangalore was conferred 'The Top Ten Global Inventors Award' at the recent Global Female Invent 2003 conference and awards. Her invention, the glass bead liquid culture technology has tremendous potential in increasing food productivity conserving biodiversity and sustaining eco-agriculture. In Vitro International develops and exports tissue culture plants.

Mashelkar, Siddiqi elected to US Academy

Dr RA Mashelkar, director-general, CSIR, has been elected foreign associate of the National Academy of Engineering of the US in recognition of his "outstanding engineering contributions and exceptional leadership and management of the Indian national laboratories". The election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Only 165 foreign associates from around 30 countries have been so honored in the last 40 years. Only three Indian engineers have received this prestigious honor, late Dr Satish Dhawan, late Dr Jai Krishan and Dr R Narsimha.

Prof. Obaid Siddiqi, founder director of the National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, and currently Professor emeritus and senior Homi Bhabha fellow at the center, has been elected foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, Washington, for his significant contributions to microbial genetics and genetic neurobiology. Prof. Siddiqi (with A Garen) discovered the supressors of 'nonsense' mutations in bacteria. He identified genes that control nerve conduction and synaptic transmission in the fruit fly Drosophila. His work on olfaction has led to an improved understanding of how olfactory information is encoded in the brain of
the fly.