Prof Saima Yunus Khan, Chairperson, Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Dr. Z.A. Dental College, Aligarh Muslim University has been awarded the Copyright by the Government of India for her original innovative work on an evidence based Indian Caries Risk Assessment tool for the children up to 6 years of age.
She started to work on the project in 2021, on receiving the John Clarkson Fellowship from the Prestigious International Association for Dental Research.
Being the first Indian to receive this fellowship, she worked in collaboration with Dr. Gerald Niznick, College of Dentistry, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences University of Manitoba, Canada.
According to Dr. Saima, the CRA tool would be beneficial to the Indian children as it addresses the risk factors of early childhood caries of Indian preschoolers. It’s a small compact tool form which can be used with ease by the masses in hospital or field settings.
The Dean, Faculty of Medicine and the Principal, J.N. Medical College, Prof Veena Maheshwari, and the Principal, Dr. Z. A. Dental College & Hospital, Prof R.K. Tewari congratulated Prof. Saima on her exemplary achievement.
source: http://www.amu.ac.in / AMU, Aligarh Muslim University / Home> Public Relations Office (headline edited & additional pix edited) / April 02nd, 2024
Rizwan Ahmad, a research scholar, working under the supervision of Prof. Moinuddin in the Department of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine, Aligarh Muslim University has won the “Young Innovator Award-2023” from the Indian Academy of Biomedical Sciences, held at AIIMS, Patna.
Ahmad’s outstanding poster presentation, titled “Modified Fibrinogen Entraps Blood Cells and Induces Oxidative Stress, Leading to Deposition of Arterial Clot: Possible Pathway in Metabolic Disorder and Development of a Novel Biomarker,” secured the second prize.
His research sheds light on the effects of fibrinogen protein under diabetes-induced stress, potentially aiding in the early detection of metabolic diseases.
Ahmad also attained first prize in an oral presentation at a symposium organized by the Endocrine Society of India and third prize at the Hematology conference organized by the Department of Pathology last year.
source: http://www.indiaeducationdiary.in / India Education Diary / Home> National News> University News / by India Education Diary (headline edited) / March 05th, 2024
Dr Valli is the scientist who made the world realise the importance of food grains
He had a comfortable US job that he left to return to India and make it healthy. More than two decades since he launched his mission, India’s ‘Millet Man’ Dr Khadar Valli Dudekula was recognised by the government of India with the civilian honour Padma Shri during the 74th Republic Day celebrations on Thursday, January 26.
Dr Valli is the scientist who made the world realise the importance of food grains. He has numerous researches to his name and has worked extensively for revival of grains over 20 years. As per The Better India, Dr Valli woke up to the problem of diet-related consequences in society around 1986-87 when he came across the case of a girl who had started menstruating at 6 years of age. Shocked by this, he decided to return to his country in 1997 and settled in Mysuru to work towards a healthy society rather than in a foreign nation.
Dr Valli is an independent scientist and food expert. In his pioneering work, he has revived five types of disappearing millets. He is a leading advocate of Millet cultivation and use. He was born in a humble background in Kadapa District of Andhra Pradesh. He pursued his BSc (Education) and MSc (Education) from Regional College of Education, Mysuru before earning a PhD in Steroids from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Besides being an agricultural scientist, he is also a homoeopath.
After completing education in India, he became a postdoctoral fellow in environmental science at Beaverton, Oregon for three years. He then worked as a scientist with Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) for four years before working with DuPont for a year in India and four plus years in the US. He discovered medicinal properties of grains during his research and named 5 specific types of grains he prescribed as “Siridhanyalu”.
source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> India / by DNA Web Team / January 28th, 2023
Her work pinpoints the sources of aerosols and their role in driving regional climate change in India, besides equipping the Ministry of Environment with the right knowledge regarding policymaking.
Dr Gazala Habib never imagined she would be a scientist one day. She recalls entertaining the idea of becoming one while watching the 1969 Bollywood spy thriller Yakeen at her home in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, but the moment was short-lived.
In the movie, Dharmendra plays a swashbuckling scientist who battles everything from enemy agents to his own doppelganger as part of a secret mission to save the country. “As much as I wanted to be like him, I also knew that it was out of the question. I came from a small town and a very conservative background, and had not heard of any woman scientist growing up,” says Dr Habib, now 49.
Eventually, Dr Habib did get to live her childhood dream. A professor at the Department of Civil Engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), her work focuses on measuring air pollutants, particularly aerosols, in ambient air using innovative equipment and approaches.
Dr Habib set up and heads the Aerosol Research and Characterization Laboratory at IIT Delhi
She also set up and heads the Aerosol Research and Characterization Laboratory at IIT Delhi, which undertakes cutting-edge research on sources of aerosols and their impacts on human health. “We strive to fill up the significant gaps in our understanding of personal exposure to particulate matter [PM] in urban areas. This will assist policymakers to better measure the impacts and inform policy initiatives,” she explains.
Dr Habib says only limited studies on PM have been conducted in India, and that too mostly at one or two locations. “None of them provide an overarching assessment of human exposure in an urban context — integrating a variety of typical exposures across a typical day, and being useful in comparing different types of exposures throughout a person’s daily activity,” she details.
Much of the work has been carried out as part of the Emissions Inventory Building Activity under the National Carbonaceous Aerosols Programme-Carbonaceous Aerosol Emissions, Source Apportionment and Climate Impacts (NCAP-COALESCE), a multi-institutional research and capacity building initiative funded by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. Dr Habib is the project incharge and coordinator in IIT Delhi for this programme.
“India does not have a uniform emissions inventory system [to measure total emissions from each pollutant from each sector]. The work under NCAP-COALESCE aims at equipping the Ministry of Environment with the right knowledge to aid sound decision-making on pollution policy,” she says.
To that end, Dr Habib and a team of researchers have developed a Versatile Source Sampling System (VS3), which will measure emissions and help monitor pollutants. The compact unit allows air to be drawn through a preweighed filter at a known rate, thus collecting particles in the air on its surface. The filter is weighed again to determine the mass of particles collected, and by dividing the mass by the total volume of air, the particle concentrations can be measured.
In comparison with other air monitoring equipment, VS3 is more sophisticated, sensitive and capable of measuring emissions, particularly small particulate matter, from a variety of sources such as residential cooking stove, open biomass burning, brick kilns and vehicles. While the technology was developed in IIT Delhi, Dr Habib says it is being used across NCAP-COALESCE partner institutions to understand complexities related to carbonaceous aerosols.
Challenging the traditional mindset
By her own admission, Dr Habib’s journey into the scientific world was not easy. “My father was a telephone operator, and my mother a primary school teacher. I am one of the eight siblings. We did not have luxuries, but my parents, especially my father, prioritised our education,” she says.
Her parents were strict about school, but their expectations relaxed a bit when time for enrolling in college arrived. “There were people in my family who were like, ladkiyon ko zyada padhane ki zaroorat nai hai [there is no need to educate girls much]. At one point, my father also contemplated the idea of my marriage after BSc,” she says.
“They expected my brothers to do engineering, and thought I should do a science degree and start preparing for IAS. But I felt that my brother was more admired by my parents because he was inclined towards engineering. He is 10 minutes older than me, and I thought to myself, if he can do it, why not me?” she adds.
With a little help from her brother, she managed to convince her parents to study engineering. Later, she gained admission to Bachelors of Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Raipur. Subsequently, she pursued MTech in environmental engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur.
Dr Habib’s earliest memories revolve around working with a large group to identify carcinogenic compounds present in emissions generated from burning crop waste in rural India
Rigours of research
Dr Habib believes destiny defined the trajectory of her career. “I was contemplating about PhD, when a junior directed me to a vacancy at IIT Bombay. I managed to apply just in time,” she says.
There were only two vacancies, and on account of a particularly gruelling panel interview, she recalls putting down her chances of selection as next to nil. However, she got selected. Her PhD mentor was Chandra Venkatraman, a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Climate Studies at IIT Bombay, who Dr Habib says “changed her way of thinking”.
“I was very shy and conventional. I remember telling her that I had never travelled alone. I told her I am not the girl who can go out and measure pollution,” she recalls. Venkatraman laid her apprehensions to rest, and Dr Habib eventually joined her mentor to work on a project analysing emissions from residential fuel sources.
The five years at IIT Bombay groomed Dr Habib to become the scientist she is today.
“I remember I started work in January and she immediately put my name up for speaking at an international conference in October. I was from a Hindi medium background, and did not even know English! She taught me to make my first PowerPoint presentation and my first Excel sheet. She taught me not only science, but also communication. Whatever I am today, it is because of her,” says Dr Habib.
Dr Habib’s earliest memories revolve around working with a large group to identify carcinogenic compounds present in emissions generated from burning crop waste in rural India
Her earliest memories revolve around working with a large group to identify carcinogenic compounds present in emissions generated from burning crop waste in rural India. “I learnt a lot from this group about how to collect samples, what kind of machines to use and how to use them,” she says. This was soon followed by her first international trip to France, where she got to work with Olivier Boucher, Director of Research, French National Centre for Scientific Research.
The coursework was demanding, and added to that was the pressure to get married. “I think the rush to get women married is also why a large number of them end up dropping out of PhDs or giving up their careers,” she adds. After consulting Prof Venkatraman, Dr Habib decided to get married only after finishing her PhD, a promise she ended up keeping.
The rigours of research eventually got to her and she remembers a point in her PhD when she became depressed. Her time at the University of Illinois, and then University of San Diego, for postdoctoral work, worsened things. “I felt lonely during my US stint, but rediscovered myself after frequenting a mosque based on a colleague’s advice,” she says.
Entry into academic sphere
In June 2008, Dr Habib joined IIT Delhi as an assistant professor. In November the same year, she got married.She was regularised in her post in 2010, and promoted as an associate professor in 2018. In March this year, she became a professor.
In the last 15 years, she has provided valuable data that helps understand air pollution better. For example, her team measured the impact of PM 10 and 2.5 particle concentration on mortality rates to assess that the numbers attributable to PM 2.5 particle concentration in Ghaziabad was 70% higher than Delhi.
“Exposure to PM has been recognised as a well known human health risk factor, however, its quantification for various regions, including India, is still not well established. In the last few years, we have undertaken many studies to help quantify this data by studying the impact of pollutants on different organs, including heart and lungs, as well as different demographic populations,” she says.
With respect to Delhi’s pollution problem, she says, “In the winters, we cannot stop talking about stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana. If you read the source apportionment papers from Delhi, you will find that pollution due to stubble burning lasts only a few days. The long-term problem that we should be solving is suspension of dust from roads. From a personal exposure perspective, vehicles account for 20 to 30% of PM 2.5 concentration,” she says.
She believes having a policy on effectively managing crop waste is the need of the hour. “In a paper we recently submitted to Nature, we discovered that despite the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a majority of rural households still use fuel dung for energy. If they use crop waste for biogas generation in addition to cow dung, there is no need of pushing LPG down their throats. It will cost less also,” she adds.
Dr Habib thinks funding needs should be simplified and freed from the shackles of bureaucracy for the research to contribute more effectively to policy. Also, India should follow an integrated approach and make the data publicly available. “What we need is a network programme that brings scientists under one umbrella, gives them standard equipment, procedure and a common goal,” she says.
“Source apportionment studies are being done in India by state Pollution Control Pollution Boards (PCBs) and Central PCB in non-attainment cities, but there is no national network. Every state is following its own rules — so methodologies, data analysis and data curation methods are different. Therefore, you cannot compare data from two cities,” she adds.
At present, Dr Habib’s focus is on setting up a state-of-the-art laboratory where all kinds of devices related to air pollution safety and monitoring can be evaluated for their performance
State-of-the-art laboratory
At present, Dr Habib’s focus is on setting up a state-of-the-art laboratory where all kinds of devices related to air pollution safety (like air purifiers, masks) and monitoring can be evaluated for their performance. “We have just received a grant from the Department of Science and Technology under SATHI [Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institutes]. The laboratory will be developed at IIT Delhi’s Sonipat campus. At present, gate number 3 of IIT Delhi has such a facility,” she says.
Dr Habib swears by the support of her husband, her 13-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter. “There are creches and day care centres on campus now, but they were not available when I had children. I do not think I would have been able to manage it all without my husband,” she says.
She believes that for more girls to study sciences and mathematics in India, discrimination needs to end. “When you put differences in their minds from the beginning, they start believing they are weak,” she says, adding that true equality can be gauged from the representation women receive. “I am still the only woman in the room in most conferences. This needs to change.”
“I never thought I would be able to do this. I had this epiphany a couple of times that I wanted to be a scientist, but the guidance came from somewhere, somehow. It was all god’s plan I say, because I never planned this,” she sums up.
source: http://www.rukhmabai.com / Rukhmabai Initiatives / Home / by Shikha Sharma / August 28th, 2023
Prof. Qudsia Tahseen, Department of Zoology at Aligarh Muslim University has been named as the National Committee representative for the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), announced by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA).
Commencing her three-year term on January 1 this appointment emphasizes Prof. Qudsia’s contributions to the fields of Taxonomy and Biodiversity. She has the distinction of holding fellowships in all three prestigious National Academies.
The IUBS, founded in 1919, is a global non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating and coordinating biological research worldwide. Its mission spans diverse areas, with the goal of addressing global biological challenges. Prof. Qudsia’s appointment to the newly formed INSA National Committee for IUBS, consisting of seven experts, solidifies her role as a representative for India in the realm of biological sciences.
Prof. Qudsia while acknowledging her appointment said the committee, serving as the national arm of IUBS, is pivotal in advancing IUBS initiatives at a domestic level. This includes policy advocacy, tackling global challenges, setting research priorities, fostering collaborations, and promoting the sustainable use of biological resources.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> India News / by TNN (headline edited) / January 05th, 2024
On Thursday, the Secretary-General at a press conference announced the creation of a new Artificial Intelligence Advisory Body on risks, opportunities and international governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) . That body will support the international community’s efforts to govern artificial intelligence.
Among the members of AI Advisory Body, two are from India — Sharad Sharma (iSPIRT) and Nazneen Rajani (Hugging Face).
Sharad Sharma is a co-founder of iSPIRT, a non-profit think tank that wants India to be a product nation. He was the CEO of Yahoo India R&D and dubbed as the architect of Indian software products ecosystem.
About Nazneen Rajani, she is a Research Lead at Hugging Face, which is building an open-source alternative to ChatGPT called H4, a powerful LLM, “aligning language models to be helpful, honest, harmless, and huggy”.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday launched this 39-member advisory body of tech company executives, government officials and academics from countries spanning 6 continents.
The panel aims to issue preliminary recommendations on AI governance by the end of the year and finalize them before the U.N. Summit of the Future next September.
The full members list are as below:
Anna Abramova, Director of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations-University AI Centre, Russian Federation
Omar Sultan al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence of the United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates
Latifa al-Abdulkarim, Member of the Shura Council (Saudi Parliament), Assistant Professor of Computer Science at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Estela Aranha, Special Advisor to the Minister for Justice and Public Security, Federal Government of Brazil, Brazil
Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence of Spain, Spain
Ran Balicer, Chief Innovation Officer and Deputy Director General at Clalit Health Services Israel, Israel
Paolo Benanti, Third Order Regular Franciscan, Lecturer at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Italy
Abeba Birhane, Senior Advisor in AI Accountability at Mozilla Foundation, Ethiopia
Ian Bremmer, President and Founder of Eurasia Group, United States
Anna Christmann, Aerospace Coordinator of the German Federal Government, Germany
Natasha Crampton, Chief Responsible AI Officer at Microsoft, New Zealand
Nighat Dad, Executive Director of the Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan, Pakistan
Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, United States
Virginia Dignum, Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University, Portugal/Netherlands
Arisa Ema, Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan
Mohamed Farahat, Legal Consultant and Vice-Chair of MAG of North Africa IGF, Egypt
Amandeep Singh Gill, Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology
Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom
Rahaf Harfoush, Digital Anthropologist, France
Hiroaki Kitano, Chief Technology Officer of Sony Group Corporation, Japan
Haksoo Ko, Chair of Republic of Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission, Republic of Korea
Andreas Krause, Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland
James Manyika, Senior Vice-President of Google-Alphabet, President for Research, Technology and Society, Zimbabwe
Maria Vanina Martinez Posse, Ramon and Cajal Fellow at the Artificial Research Institute, Argentina
Seydina Moussa Ndiaye, Lecturer at Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University, Senegal
Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI, Albania
Petri Myllymaki, Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science of University of Helsinki, Finland
Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, United States
Nazneen Rajani, Lead Researcher at Hugging Face, India
Craig Ramlal, Head of the Control Systems Group at the University of The West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
He Ruimin, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Deputy Chief Digital Technology Officer, Government of Singapore, Singapore
Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa
Sharad Sharma, Co-founder iSPIRT Foundation, India
Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director at Stanford University Cyber Policy Center, Netherlands
Jaan Tallinn, Co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Estonia
Philip Thigo, Adviser at the Government of Kenya, Kenya
Jimena Sofia Viveros Alvarez, Chief of Staff and Head Legal Advisor to Justice Loretta Ortiz at the Mexican Supreme Court, Mexico
Yi Zeng, Professor and Director of Brain-inspired Cognitive AI Lab, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Zhang Linghan, Professor at the Institute of Data Law, China University of Political Science and Law, China
“The transformative potential of AI for good is difficult even to grasp,” Guterres said. He pointed to possible uses including predicting crises, improving public health and education, and tackling the climate crisis.
However, the UN Secretary-General cautioned, “It is already clear that the malicious use of AI could undermine trust in institutions, weaken social cohesion and threaten democracy itself.”
source: http://www.indianweb2.com / Indian Web2 / Home> AI Governance / by Indian Web2 / October 27th, 2023
Mumbai based Hamid Farooqui , is a serial entrepreneur who is the CEO of a fast growing SaaS (Software as a Service) company called SoGoSurvey that he co-founded in 2012. SoGoSurvey offers powerful, user-friendly, and affordable online survey software. SoGoSurvey is changing how feedback is collected in a secure, collaborative setting, and moving forward the process of understanding the feedback gathered from customers, employees, and other stakeholders.
Hamid started his tech career as a geeky programmer during the dot com boom and has expertise in all its related technologies, from Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud computing and mobile applications. He was an early member of the technology team that designed, built, and launched Oracle’s e-Travel’s corporate travel tool using C++ and the then brand-new WAP.
In recognition of his strong performance and technology management skills, Hamid rose through successive promotions to serve as the division’s Director of Engineering. After e-Travel was acquired by Amadeus, Hamid led the integration of two complex technology platforms in both the U.S. and Europe.
Hamid is co-founder, CTO of K12Insight, which offers cloud-based solutions to enhance communication between educators and community members. K12Insight’s tools are helping school leaders build stronger relationships among parents, teachers, students, and staff. He also co-founded India’s most successful consumer review site mouthshut.com, considered a pioneer of the Internet revolution in India.
Hamid is a frequent speaker at technology conferences and startup events. Among his favorite topics are the startup scene in emerging markets and the future of autonomous cars.
Besides technology, Hamid is very actively involved in philanthropic work. He and his family runs and funds a school for poor children in a remote part of India, where more than 500 children study for free.
Hamid earned an engineering degree from Bombay University in India and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from State University of New York, Binghamton.
Mr. Farooqui believes that Indian organizations just like their global counterparts need a strong survey tool in order to understand the pulse of their audience. Companies have to ensure that they know their customers so they can rectify or retain the quality of services or products. Also, for retention of employees, companies must conduct Employee Satisfaction Survey that helps in creating a suitable work environment that meets and exceeds their expectations.
About SogoSurvey:
When it came to online survey software, users have had two difficult options:
the affordable, low-end, low-power solution, and
the more powerful solution that breaks the bank
This world has just been disrupted: you can now have really powerful, highly user-friendly online survey software at a super-low cost. And it comes with training and support that existing customers are raving about. We’re changing not just how you collect feedback in a secure, collaborative setting, but also how you fundamentally view feedback from customers, employees and other stakeholders. Our solution is easy for the beginner and powerful for the expert.
SoGoSurvey is a software company which provides one of the best enterprise feedback system/ survey tool as SaaS model. SoGoSurvey was founded by Hamid Farooqui and Suhail Farooqui in beta/stealth mode in 2012. The company came out in its full existence in the year 2013. It is a USA based company with the offices in India and UAE. Target market for SoGoSurvey is all small, medium and large businesses who need to conduct different types of surveys such as Employee satisfaction Survey, Customer Satisfaction Survey, Employee Engagement Survey and others.
Marketing Strategy of SogoSurvey is to have an awesome product and website which is appealing to the user. They also offer a free version of our tool so that users who want to use the tool for basic purpose can also access the same. The freemium model gives the access to a great amount of people who turn into loyal users eventually.
source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Indian Muslim> Positive Story> Sci-Tech> Youth / by Muslim Mirror Special Correspondent / January 04th, 2019
Prof Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain’s scientific research has changed the complicated regimen for the diagnosis of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis and the Indian Basmati getting its patent and trademark in the UK in the fight against the Pakistani variant. This Bihar-born scientists’ findings have saved patients suffering from Drug-Resistant TB money and time and helped the Indian government and farmers earn through exports of the Basmati.
He told Awaz-the Voice in an interview that the government of India has taken at least two major policy decisions based on his research. “One decision was that previously the testing of tuberculosis (TB) was based upon antibody-antigen reaction. So, the antibody formed was based on the antigen of a bacterial protein, and the sequence (genetic) used was mostly European or American isolates.
“When I did sequencing in India, I found out that the Indian variant is completely different. Therefore, the test could give false positives or negatives…. I published this finding and had a meeting with the DG of ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) and recommended that the tests based on foreign kits be banned and that made a big impact.”
The President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam presenting Padma Shri to Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain, renowned biologist, at an Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on March 29, 2006.
Padma Shri recipient Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain said. E. Hasnain was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the highest Civilian decoration of Germany in 2014. Nature, a famous scientific journal, reported on his receiving the award, “With the Order of Merit, he joins the league of outstanding personalities from various fields including Nobel laureate biologist Paul Herman Muller, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and music conductor John Crosby.”
In 2006, he received Padma Shri in recognition of his scientific work. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1995) and J. C. Bose Fellowship (2006), two of the most prestigious Indian Awards in the field of science have also come his way apart from numerous other decorations.
Hasnain was born in Gaya, Bihar in 1954. He was born seven years after India had attained independence. At that time Bihar was not the most developed of the Indian states. Hasnain’s father was a college lecturer and he nursed a dream of studying abroad. He studied at the Nazareth Academy, an expensive school in the town. It’s said that almost 20% of his father’s salary would go into children’s school fees.
He did his M.Sc. from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. However, though he was selected for his post-graduation studies by Harvard University, for some reason he could not join.
In 1981, Hasnain moved to Canada as a Post-doctoral Fellow (PDF). He worked in Canada and the USA for the next six years. At this stage, his father asked him to return home to serve his country and people. He was advised by many people that he must try to get his green card before moving back to India.
Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain with Dr Venky Ramakrishna, Nobel Prize Winner and President of Royal Society, UK, in Cambridge
In 1987, he joined the National Institute of Immunology (NII) as a scientist. Hasnain says, “I thought that after getting a green card, I would have a fall-back and a plan B. I did not want a plan B. My plan was the only plan A. I will work in India and do something good in India.”
Hasnain broke the convention by not continuing the research he was doing abroad. He started afresh and soon made a name for himself in research of baculoviruses. He established a baculovirus insect cell expression system (BEVS) for the first time in India and used this to express foreign genes and also to ask fundamental questions concerning gene expression in BEVS. The idea was to make India a scientific power.
Hasnain says that when his career was at the peak with research on baculovirus one day, Dr. Sandeep Basu, the then director of NII, asked him, “Seyed, you are publishing in good journals, it is fine, but how does humanity benefit? What is India gaining out of it? How are the common men benefiting from your papers? Doing research is good but do something which will benefit the common man.”
This was the turning point in Hasnain’s life and career. He says “I decided to do something where I can do direct application.” He started his research on tuberculosis.
Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain at the Global Health Conference organized by the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, Halle, Germany
Hasnain initiated studies on molecular epidemiology and genetics of multi-drug resistant (MDR) M. tuberculosis (M.tb). He says, “second important observation that was published, again the first time in the world. We used to test TB for drug resistance. The bacteria was tested against each drug. I showed with my study that if the bacteria are resistant to one drug then it will be resistant to almost all other drugs. I established the correlation and proposed that you don’t need to do multi-drug resistance testing for all the drugs. Just test one drug rifampicin and if it is confirmed then 95%-99% of drugs will be resisted by the bacteria. That has become a standard treatment all over the world. He is still working on developing cheaper methods of diagnosing TB.
In 1999 Hasnain was invited as the first director of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad. It was based on his work on Indian Basmati Rice DNA fingerprinting that India won the Patent case against Pakistan enabling the export of the Indian Basmati to the UK. This prevented a major economic loss to India. Subsequently, the Ministry of Commerce established the CDFD-APEDA Basmati DNA Analysis Centre, where all Basmati exports are certified.
Hasnain also served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad (2005-11), and Vice Chancellor of Hamdard University and is currently A National Science Chair of SERB, at the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology at IIT-Delhi.
Hasnain Mantra is: “Nothing is a substitute for hard work.”
source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Story / by Saquib Salim / November 03rd, 2023
The “SS AMU SAT” is a Nanosatellite Project which began in November 2021 under the AMU Robo Club.
Aligarh Muslim University:
The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), working under the Department of Space, Government of India, has approved the proposal for development of “SS AMU SAT” – Aligarh Muslim University’s first satellite programme.
The leading university’s first satellite programme is to be named after its founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.
About SS AMU Sat
The “SS AMU SAT” is a Nanosatellite Project which began in November 2021 under the AMU Robo Club. The satellite is a 3U CubeSat with multiple objectives which include the study of economic growth in India’s poorest districts using satellite imagery and implementation of an in-house developed image compression technology for a faster multimedia transmission.
In addition to this, the satellite will also test various satellite sub-systems that have been built in-house.
SS AMU Sat Team
The project was submitted to IN-SPACe in January 2023, for approval, registration, frequency allocation and launch of SS AMU SAT.
In September 2023, the Student Satellite Committee, chaired by Dr. P K Jain, Director (PMAD), IN-SPACe, reviewed the design and approved the proposal with a condition that AMU will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IN-SPACe for all activities from the development of the SS AMU SAT to its launch into the Lower Earth Orbit.
The project is headed by Prof. Ekram Khan, Chairman, Department of Electronics Engineering, under the leadership of Prof. M.M. Sufiyan Beg, Principal, Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology.
The students’ team which is involved in the development of the project, is led by Ms Poorti Varshney and mentored by Dr. C. A. Prabhakar (Former Project Director, ISRO) and Er. Faraz Ahmad (A 2013 batch alumnus). The project has received technical support from AMU alumni working with ISRO and several industrial experts across the globe.
The team of students comprises Kulsum Ilyas, Anant Agarwal, Tarun Singh, Rabiya, Mohammad Ali, Ilma Shah, Ahsan Waseem, Azhan Kamil, Tanu Attri, Mohd. Arquam, Kanuj Chitranshu, Munira Sultan, Atifa Saeed, Kanika, Asif Ali, Syed Muhammad Suhaib, Azam, Gulam Fareed, Samad, Varun Yadav, Mudassir Ali, Tehreem Fatima, Tarannum Zafar, Yashra, Mansha and Binish Kashif
The project is tentatively scheduled to be launched in 6 months.
source: http://www.ummid.com / Ummid.com / Home> Education & Career / by ummid.com news network / October 28th, 2023
So many lives have been lost due to drivers falling asleep while driving. Rabia Farooqui, a student of Hubballi, has invented life-saving glasses to eliminate this.
The same anti-sleep drowsiness preventer machine warns students if they fall asleep while studying. The night shift workers are also alerted.
The transparent glasses are equipped with a rechargeable battery, an SIB buzzer, and an IR sensor. If the eyes are accidentally closed while driving, the nano Arduino buzzer will ring instantly and alert the driver.
Rabia Farooqui is currently studying in the first year of PUC at Vidyaniketan College. The glasses invented by Rubia have now been selected for the National Best Model Award at the Inspire Awards show held in Delhi.
Apart from this, the glasses invented by Rubia have also been selected for international-level science exhibitions.
source: http://www.thehindustangazette.com / The Hindustan Gazette / Home> News> Education / by Shifa / October 19th, 2023
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