Michigan State University (MSU) in the US honoured its famous Indian alumnus, the late Verghese Kurien, father of India’s White Revolution, by installing his bronze bust on its campus in a ceremony on May 25. The event has a link to Shivamogga as Mallikarjun Devapur Veerabhadrappa, a dairy engineer with Shimul (Shivamogga, Davanagere and Chitradurga Co-operative Milk Union Ltd) donated the bust to MSU on behalf of Indian farmers. And also, Sagar-based sculptor Vipin Badaria carved the bust.
Leo Kempel, dean of the College of Engineering, Doug Buhler, assistant vice-president and director of MSU Agriculture Bio Research, Ron Hendrick, Dean of College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Satish Udpa, executive vice president for administrative services were present on the occasion.
Kempel said, “No graduate from the College of Engineering, or maybe even MSU, transformed more lives than Dr Kurien did and he used a mindset of breaking up a problem and solving it piece by piece.”
Mallikarjun told DH over phone from the US that Kurien had received a master’s degree in 1948 from the MSU Department of Mechanical Engineering. His billion-litre idea transformed India from a milk-deficient nation to the world’s largest milk producer, surpassing the United States in 1998.
Mallikarjun had donated Kurien’s bust made of marble powder earlier. Now, it would be replaced by the new bronze bust which is more durable.
Published 26 May 2017, 20:10 IST