Born in Fairlie, Ayrshire, Scotland, Dr. John L. Monteith, one of the youngest scientists ever elected as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, holds a high international reputation in the related fields of soil physics, micrometeorology, transpiration, water management for agricultural production, and the influence of the natural environment on field crops, horticultural crops, forestry, and animal production. Currently Director of the Resource Management Program, International Crops Research Institute for the Semiarid Tropics, in Patancheru, India, his pioneering work in evapotranspiration prediction theory is now applied throughout the world as the "Penman-Monteith" equations.

His research on the role of environment in agriculture, the physics of crop microclimate and evapotranspiration, physiology of crop growth and yield, radiation climatology heat balance in animals, and instrumentation for measuring physical and physiological variables in agriculture have been published in journals throughout the world and he is quoted worldwide as the world's leading authority on the relationships between environment and crop water use and crop growth processes. Possessing an outstanding ability to focus scientific thought, he has served on the editorial boards of eight international scientific journals. Dr. Monteith has given keynote lectures and lectureships around the world, including Japan, the USSR, France, Israel, the Netherlands, Australia, Nigeria, Brazil, Kenya, Malawi, the USA, and Czechoslovakia.

Dr. Monteith's great knowledge on the interaction of the environment and agriculture is presented in his book, Principles of Environmental Physics. Other research interests range from cocoa production in Brazil to agroforestry in Africa.

Outside interests including playing organ for his church. He married Elsa Marion Witherspoon in 1955. The Monteiths have five children.

Dr. Monteith received a degree in Physics from the University of Edinburgh in 1951 and earned a Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of London, Imperial College, in 1954. He received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1989, in recognition of his outstanding contributions and distinguished career. He has been a dedicated University teacher, scientist, and administrator; has served on national and international committees; and retired from his academic career to pursue his research program through ICRISAT in India, where he has focused on "global change," encompassing cumulative, human-induced effects, extrapolated for their adverse impacts on the entire globe. He addresses such concerns as problems posed by the environmental release modified life forms, including their release, survival, and spread, and the impacts they will have on the environment and on water, air, and soil quality. He has also initiated ICRISAT programs on sustainable agriculture systems for developing countries in the semi-arid tropics.

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