President Steven Leath welcomed 2015 World Food Prize Laureate Sir Fazle Hasan Abed on Monday night as a part of the Norman Borlaug lecture series in the Memorial Union.

The lecture series began in 2002. Borlaug founded The World Food Prize after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

The lectures continue to honor his memory after his death in 2009. Bourlag is known as the father of the “Green Revolution” because of his diligence and hard work to stop poverty and hunger.

“We are bringing the Green Revolution to Bangladesh and parts of Africa,” Abed said.

The annual lecture focuses on the World Food Prize International Symposium and features speakers like Sir Fazle Hasan Abed.

Paige Myers, sophomore in global resource systems, worked doors down from Abed at the Borlaug-Ruan International Internship this summer.

“At the end of the internship, I got to meet Sir Fazle Hasan Abed and it was a huge honor,” Myers said.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed founded BRAC, an organization that works with people whose lives are interfered with poverty, illiteracy and diseases.

“I was 34 years old living a comfortable life and going through a transformation of my own, and a terrible cyclone struck Bangladesh, killing hundreds of thousands of mainly poor people,” Abed said.

As a result of his efforts, Abed talked about the current food production increase.

“[I am proud to say] the food production in Bangladesh has gone up 3.1 times,” Abed said.

He said those who he helped in poverty described hunger as like being in prison.

The relevance of simple relief work wouldn’t be enough to solve underlying problems.

“I saw the relationship between hungry poverty and powerlessness,” Abed said.

At the end of his lecture, Abed interacted with the community for a Q&A.