Yuan Longping, a CAE academician, is the pathfinder of studying and developing hybrid rice in China. He is also the first scientist to successfully utilize  heterosis in rice in the world, therefore praised as “the father of hybrid rice”. Since the early 1960s, he has been devoting himself to the study of hybrid rice. The hybrid rice he developed was called the “oriental magic rice” by western experts because its output was 20% higher than that of the conventional rice. The increased rice production by planting hybrid rice can feed 70 million more people every year in China, which fundamentally solved the food problem in China. Nowadays, hybrid rice has been popularized to over 40 countries and regions around the globe, not only solving the food safety issues in China but also setting up a monument for world peace and social progress. He successively obtained more than 20 international and national awards, including the Special-class National Invention Prize, the first State Supreme Science and Technology Award, the National Special-class Prize for Science and Technology progress, the “Science Prize” from UNESCO, the “food security prize” from FAO, the World Food Prize from United States, etc. Besides, he has been honored as a foreign academician of National Academy of Sciences of the United States. His two life-long wishes are “enjoying the cool under rice panicle” and “hybrid rice covering the whole world”, realizing his great goal of “developing hybrid rice for the welfare of the people all over the world”.