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Prof. Alam Passed Away


We are deeply mourned at the death of our honorable Professor Maqsudul Alam, Principal Investigator of Basic and Applied Research on Jute Project, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI). He was also a renowned professor and chair, Dept. of Microbiology, University of Hawaii, USA. We pray for the peace of his departed soul.

 

About Professor Maqsudul Alam 

 

Professor Maqsudul Alam was born on December 14, 1954 at Madaripur in Bangladesh. His father, Dalil Uddin Ahmed, a martyr of the 1971 Liberation War, was an official of the then East Pakistan Rifles and his mother Lyrian Ahmed was a teacher and social worker.

 

Professor Alam completed secondary and higher secondary education from Government Laboratory High School and Dhaka College, respectively. He completed his graduation in Science and Master’s in Microbiology from Moscow State University, Russia. He was awarded Ph.D degree in Microbiology in 1982 from the same university. He was also awarded his second Ph.D in Biochemistry from Max-Planck-Institute, Germany in 1987.


His work focused on signal transduction in halophilic archaea, which he continued during his postdoctoral training at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (Russian Academy of Sciences) and Washington State University. He joined the Department of Microbiology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1992. His research in signal transduction eventually led to the discovery of human myoglobin-like proteins (globin-coupled sensors and protoglobins) in extremophiles. Since 2003, Maqsudul has been the Director of the UH College of Natural Sciences’ Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics (ASGPB). ASGPB has been involved in many international collaborative projects, completing several microbial genomes as well as the genomes of papaya, rubber tree, and jute. Maqsudul was also the Chief Executive Director of the Centre for Chemical Biology at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

 

 

He joined as Principal Investigator (PI) of Basic and Applied Research on Jute Project (Jute Genome Sequencing Project), Bangladesh Jute Research Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2009. His team decoded the genome sequence of Tossa Jute in 2010, a fungus in 2012 and White Jute in 2013 under his dynamic leadership.

 

He achieved excellence of research award in 2001 from University of Hawaii; NIH Shannon Award, in 1997; Humboldt Research Fellow, in 1987 from German Science Foundation.

 

Professor Alam was admitted to the Queens Medical Center at Hawaii in US with liver problem on December 2, 2014 and was undergoing treatment there. He breathed his last at this hospital on December 21, 2014 around 2:18 am (Bangladesh time). He was sixty at his death. He was buried on December 23, 2014 at the Hawaii Memorial Park Cemetery as per his desire.

 

Professor Alam left behind his wife Rafia, two daughters Liliana and Zesan, a host of relatives, followers and well-wishers to mourn his death.

 

Honorable President Abdul Hamid, Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Honorable Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, Honorable Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah, Honorable Leader of the Opposition, Honorable Minister for Agriculture Matia Chowdhury and a number of ministers, state ministers and well-wishers expressed deep shock at the death of this great scientist. 

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