Borlaug was born in Cresco, Iowa, and graduated in forestry from Minnesota University in 1937, gaining his doctorate in plant pathology in 1941. He then spent three years with the Du Pont Chemical Company, testing the effects of chemicals on plants and plant diseases. In 1944 he joined the newly formed International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico and began the breeding work that was to produce the highly adaptable dwarf wheats that played so large a part in the ‘Green Revolution’ of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Borlaug's high-yielding cereals increased agricultural production in the developing countries to the extent that many became self-sufficient for grain. For his major role in temporarily alleviating world famine, Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.