Gebisa Ejeta won the World Food Prize in 2009 for developing an advanced hybrid of the sorghum cerealEthiopian-born scientist Gebisa Ejeta has received the National Medal of Science, the highest state honour attainable by scientists in the United States. US President Joe Biden said he awarded Mr Ejeta the medal for his "outstanding contributions to the science of plant genetics". Mr Ejeta is acclaimed as one of the world's leading plant geneticists. Mr Ejeta was raised in a single-roomed thatched home in a village in central Ethiopia not far from the capital, Addis Ababa. Mr Ejeta also received the National Hero Award from the Ethiopian government shortly after he won the World Food Prize in 2009, the highest national honour bestowed on Ethiopian citizens.
