Honoring the memory of former maize director, Rip Paliwal

We are sad to inform readers that on 05 January 2013, at the age of 84, Ripusudan L. Paliwal, a CIMMYT employee for 17 years who served as director of the maize program, passed away in the presence of his family near New Delhi, India. Rip, as he was respectfully and affectionately known by colleagues, came to CIMMYT as associate director of the maize program in 1976, after serving as dean of the college of agriculture of GP Pant University, Pantnagar, India. Former colleague and retired CIMMYT maize director Ron Cantrell called Paliwal a major factor in the success of the maize program. “I have nothing but fond memories of my time at CIMMYT and one of the principal reasons was the support and friendship of Rip,” says Cantrell. “He was an invaluable source of information about tropical maize and the national programs throughout the world.” His activities after retirement from CIMMYT in 1993 included authoring books such as the 2000 FAO publication “Tropical maize: Improvement and production.” The CIMMYT family extends its sincere sympathy and prayers to the Paliwal family, including children Nirupama, Nivedita, Muktesh, and Sarvesh, who worked as a CIMMYT maize scientist in the early 2000s.