Professor MS Swaminathan has kindly agreed to be the Chief Patron of FABS. He has been acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the twenty most influential Asians of the 20th century and one of the only three from India, the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. He has been described by the United Nations Environment Programme as "the Father of Economic Ecology" and by Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary General of the United Nations, as "a living legend who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction". He was Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee set up in 1980; Independent Chairman of the FAO Council and President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Prof. Swaminathan is hailed as father of green revolution in India. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian agriculture, Government of India awarded to Prof. Swaminathan Padma Sri 1967, Padma Bhushan in 1972, and Padma Vibhushan in 1989. He was awarded 58 honorary degrees by various universities of the world, and 95 awards and recognitions by national and international agencies.