of the aims of such research was to increase plant responsiveness to fertilisers and demonstrate real world application of crop mutations. Swaminathan's early basic research on the effects of radiation on cells and organisms partly formed the base of future redox biology. calls Swaminathan's paper on neutron radiation in agriculture in 1966 presented at an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference in USA as "epoch-making". The work of Swaminathan and his colleagues was relevant to food irradiation. Public recognition Awards and honours Swaminathan received the Mendel Memorial Medal from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1965. Following this he received numerous international awards and honours, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1971), the Albert Einstein World Science Award (1986), the first World Food Prize (1987), the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1991), the Four Freedoms Award (2000), and the Planet and Humanity Medal of the International Geographical Union (2000). When accepting the Ramon Magsaysay Award, Swaminathan quoted Seneca "A hungry person listens neither to reason, nor to religion, nor is bent by any prayer." He has been conferred with the Order of the Golden Heart of the Philippines, the Order of Agricultural Merit of France, the Order of the Golden Ark of Netherlands, and the Royal Order of Sahametrei of Cambodia. China awarded him with the "Award for International Co-operation on Environment and Development". In the 'Dr Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates' at Des Moines, Iowa, United States, there is an artwork of Swaminathan made up of 250,000 pieces of glass. International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has named a building and a scholarship fund after him. One of the first national awards he received was the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1961. Following this he has been conferred with the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, India's fourth, third, and second-highest civilian awards, as well as the H K Firodia award, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award and the Indira Gandhi Prize. As of 2002, he had 28 national and 24 international awards. In 2016 Biotech Express magazine listed 33 national and 32 international awards. In 2004, an agricultural think-tank in India named an annual award after Swaminathan, the eponymously named 'Award for Leadership in Agriculture'. Honorary doctorates and fellowships He is the recipient of 84 honorary doctorates and has been a guide for numerous Ph.D. scholars. Sardar Patel University conferred him with an honorary degree in 1970, Delhi University,