Dr. Vandana Shiva is born in Dehradun, has trained as a Physicist at the University of Punjab and completed her Ph.D. on the ‘Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory’ from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. She returned home to Dehradun in 1978, where she developed interest in environmentalism after witnessing ecological destruction. She later shifted to inter-disciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy, which she carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India.
In 1982, she founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE), an independent research institute that addresses the most significant problems of ecology of our times, and two years later, Navdanya (‘nine seeds) a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers rights to combat the growing tendency towards monoculture promoted by large corporations.
Besides being a physicist, ecologist, activist, editor and author of numerous books, Dr. Shiva is a tireless defender of the environment and fights for changes in the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food. She has contributed in many fields including Intellectual property rights, biodiversity, biotechnology, bioethics and genetic engineering both intellectually and through activist campaigns.
She has assisted grassroots organisations of the Green Movement in Africa, Asia, America, Ireland, Switzerland and Austria with campaigns against genetic engineering. She has also served as an advisor to governments in India and abroad as well as NGOs including the International Forum for Globalisation, the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation, The Third World Network and the Asia Pacific People’s Environment Network.
She has authored numerous books and scientific and technical journals.
She is best known as a critic of Asia’s Green Revolution, an international effort that began in the 60’s to increase food production through higher-yielding seed stocks and the increased use of pesticides and fertilizers. The RFSTE established seed banks throughout India to preserve country’s agricultural heritage while training farmers in sustainable agricultural practices.
In 2001 she opened Bija Vidyapeeth at Dehradun, a school and organic farm offering month-long courses in sustainable living and agriculture.
Dr. Shiva has been recognized through many national and international awards for her work. In 2002, Time magazine identified Dr. Shiva as an ‘Environmental Hero’ and Asia Week called her one of the five most powerful communicators of Asia.