An internationally-known scientist has been awarded the 1995 World Food Prize for his efforts to save millions of Africans from famine.

Dr. Hans R. Herren, a Swiss-born biologist and entomologist, was awarded the $200,000 prize for introducing a biological control for an insect which threatened to destroy the most important food crop in Africa.

According to a press release, Herren joined the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria in 1979. At that time Nigeria’s cassava plant was being ravaged by a bug that damaged up to 80 percent of the crop.

Herren began a search for a natural predator of the pest. By 1981, a small wasp that destroys the bug had been identified.

Distribution of the wasp into Africa was costly, but Herren eventually convinced donors across the globe for enough money to distribute the wasps by airplane.

The wasps thrived in their new habitat and by 1993, the bug had been brought under control in 30 countries.

The prize was given by the World Food Prize Foundation, sponsored by the Des Moines-based Ruan Companies.

Iowa State’s College of Agriculture serves as secretariat of the World Food Prize.

Brian Meyer, public relations coordinator for the World Food Prize, likens the college’s role to a program manager.

“[The college] sends out applications to about 3,000 institutions throughout the world including schools, research institutes and nonprofit organizations,”

He said ISU agriculture officials “prepare the information for the council advisors at the World Food Prize Foundation.”

Herren is the 10th person to receive the World Food Prize, which recognizes “individual efforts in food production,” said Herman Kilpper, executive director of the World Food Prize Foundation.

“It [the prize] is unique in that it is a retrospective prize … evaluating what an individual has actually done to make a measurable impact on people’s lives,” he said.