Dr. Jacob elected chairman of rubber research organisation

At its 2014 international conference and annual meeting in Manila in late November, the International Rubber Research and Development Board (IRRDB) elected Dr. James Jacob, director of research at the Rubber Research Institute of India (the research department operated by India’s Rubber Board), its chairman for a two-year period. Dr. Jacob has been IRRDB vice-chairman for the past five years, and previously served as liaison officer of the IRRDB’s Physiology Specialist Group.

James Jacob has been director of the Rubber Research Institute of India for the last eight years. A graduate in Agriculture, he has a PhD in Plant Physiology from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (India) and another PhD in Biochemistry from Imperial College, London. Before joining the Rubber Research Institute of India, he worked with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in the US.

The IRRDB is a research and development network which brings together natural rubber research institutes in virtually all the natural rubber producing countries, covering 95 per cent of world natural rubber production. IRRDB scientists work on all aspects of research and development in the field of natural rubber and its products. The board was created in 1958 and initially headquartered in the UK, before moving to Malaysia a decade ago. This year is the first time that the chairmanship has gone to someone based in India.