Oh, I could tell you his name, but it probably wouldn't mean anything to you: Norman E. Borlaug.  He died at the age of 95 last night.

What was his claim to fame?  Well, the title above says it all.  He saved more human lives than anybody in the history of…. well…. in the history of history.

How many lives?  Well, the figure most often used is one billion.

That's right.  Dude saved the lives of around one billion people.

Believe it or not, the fictional The West Wing mentioned Borlaug and his accomplishments.

A popular book in the middle of last century called The Population Bomb warned of massive starvation primarily in Africa and the Middle East, and would have come true but for Borlaug's innovations, helping to more than double world food production between 1960 and 1990. 

The father of the green revolution, his efforts averted global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.