English
Bengali
BIOGRAPHY OF DR. MAQSUDUL ALAM
Former Bangladeshi (life-science) Scientist
(14 December 1954 – 20 December 2014)
Born on 14 December 1954, at Madaripur (Faridpur) of the then East Bengal, East Pakistan, Maqsudul Alam was a Bangladeshi (life-science) scientist. He was world-renowned for genome sequencing. Even though he successfully did genome sequencing in the USA and Malaysia in 2003, he came into the limelight and gained a reputation for doing genome sequencing of jute species and jute attacking fungus in Bangladesh in 2010.
After completing his SSC and HSC in Bangladesh, Maqsudul left for Russia to pursue higher education. He did his MSc. in Microbiology in 1979 from Moscow State University, Russia, and got his first Ph.D. in 1982 in the same subject and same university. Later, in 1987, he earned his second Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany.
He started his career as a Senior Research Scientist and later continued his career path in the teaching profession. He worked for different universities in the USA and Malaysia, mainly as a professor. He also served as a ‘Director’ for different research centers in the USA and Malaysia and as a member of the advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Bangladesh.
His scientific career was very successful. At the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, in 2003, he set up a research center and there he started working on genome sequencing. His first genome sequencing was on Idiomarina loihiensis. After that, in 2007, he and his team members worked on the Hawaii Papaya Genome Project to sequence to make disease-resistant Papayas. He also did sequencing on the transgenic papaya to help the farmers to sell the papaya in Japan. In 2009, he built a research center at Universiti Sains Malaysia mainly to work on genome sequencing of rubber trees and carry out different research works.
Finally, in 2009, he joined the Jute Research Institute in Bangladesh and eventually worked on genome sequencing of ‘tossa’ jute in 2010, to make it disease-free. The success of this project gave him world recognition. Additionally, he worked on sequencing a jute-attacking fungus and white or deshi jute.
In personal life, his father was a freedom fighter who died in the liberation war. His mother was a teacher. In marital life, he first got married in Russia, to Irina Anatolievna, who was a medical student at that time. The couple had a daughter. They shifted to the USA in 1992. The couple got divorced in 1997 and later in 2009, Maqsudul married Rafia Hasina.
Maqsudul died on 20 December 2014, at the Queen’s Medical Center, Hawaii, USA at the age of 60. He was suffering from liver cirrhosis. He was buried there at Hawaii Memorial Park Cemetery as per his last wish.
He has achieved quite a number of awards globally and from Bangladesh the Independence Day Award, posthumously by the Bangladesh Government. The University of Hawaii Foundation created a fund organization in honor of him.
He published two research papers by working with other different international researchers.
Life of “Dr. Maqsudul Alam” at a glance
Real Name: Maqsudul Alam
Birth Date: 14 December 1954
Birth Place: Madaripur (Faridpur), East Bengal, Dominion of Pakistan
Father’s Name: Dalil Uddin Ahmed
Mother’s Name: Lyrian Ahmed
Professions:
➢ Senior Research Scientist, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, from 1988 to 1990
➢ Visiting scientist, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Washington State University, USA, from 1990 to 1992
➢ Assistant Director, Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center (MarBEC), University of Hawaiʻi, USA
➢ Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa, USA, in 1992
➢ Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa, USA, in 1997
➢ Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa, USA, in 2001
➢ Director, Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA, from 2003 to 2014
➢ Director, Centre for Chemical Biology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, from 2009 to 2012
➢ Member, Advisory Board, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Sylhet, Bangladesh.
➢ Worked in Hawaii Papaya Genome Project, in 2007
➢ Principal Investigator, Basic and Applied Research on Jute Project, Jute Research Institute, Bangladesh
Education:
➢ Secondary education, Government Laboratory High School, Dhaka
➢ Higher Secondary education, Dhaka College
➢ MSc./Master’s degree, Microbiology, Moscow State University, Russia, in 1979
➢ Ph.D. degree, Microbiology, Moscow State University, Russia in 1982
➢ Ph.D. degree, Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany, in 1987
Married to:
➢ Irina Anatolievna Pyrkova Corotan
➢ Rafia Hasina
Children: 1 daughter; Liliana Maqsudulovna Alam
Religion: Islam
Nationality: Bangladeshi-American
Death Date: 20 December 2014
Death Place: Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Buried in: Hawaii General Park, U.S.A.
Awards and Achievements:
➢ Excellence of Research, University of Hawaiʻi, in 2001
➢ NIH Shannon Award, in 1997
➢ Humboldt Research Fellow, German Science Foundation, in 1987
➢ Independence Day Award, Government of Bangladesh, in 2016
➢ “Maqsudul Alam Graduate Research Award Fund”, University of Hawaii Foundation
Publications by Him:
➢ Synteny and Collinearity in Plant Genomes in 2008
➢ Protoglobin and Globin-coupled Sensors, in 2008
Early life
Maqsudul Alam was born on 14 December 1954, in the district Madaripur (Faridpur) of the then East Pakistan, currently Bangladesh. His father, Dalil Uddin Ahmed, was a freedom fighter and a martyr of the Liberation War of 1971. He also served for the East Pakistan Rifles. Maqsudul’s mother, Lyrian Ahmed, was a teacher, and a social activist.
He spent his childhood and teenage life in Bangladesh. But after the country’s independence, he moved to Russia for higher education and later for work purposes, settled in the USA with his family. There he passed away and was buried.
Education
Before the independence of Bangladesh, Maqsudul had completed his Secondary education from the Government Laboratory High School, Dhaka. 2 years later, from Dhaka College, he passed his Higher Secondary education.
After that, no information was found about his undergraduate university or degree.
It is known that after the independence of Bangladesh, he had moved to Russia to pursue his post-graduation there. In 1979, Maqsudul obtained his Master’s degree (MSc.) in Microbiology from the Moscow State University, Russia. 3 years later, from the same university, he achieved his first Ph.D. degree in the same field, Microbiology. 5 years after this, in 1987, he did another Ph.D degree, now in Biochemistry. This time he got the degree from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, a research institute in Munich, Germany.
Career
Maqsudul was involved with different global universities for different roles at different times, mainly for teaching purposes and as a researcher.
He worked as a ‘Senior Research Scientist’, from 1988 to 1990, at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, situated in Moscow, Russia. After that, from 1990 to 1992, he served as a ‘visiting scientist’ in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Washington State University, USA.
Maqsudul worked as an ‘Assistant Director’ of the Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center (MarBEC) at the University of Hawaii, USA. This led him to join the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Department of Microbiology as an ‘Assistant Professor’ in 1992. 5 years later, in 1997, he was promoted to ‘Associate Professor’. Finally, in 2001, he became a ‘Professor’ and he remained in this role till his death, in 2014. Additionally, from 2003 up to his death, he served as the ‘Director of Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics, and Bioinformatics at the same university.
From 2009 to 2012, he also became the ‘Director’ of the Centre for Chemical Biology, at Universiti Sains Malaysia (University of Science), situated in Malaysia.
After working for international universities for a long time, in 2011, Maqsudul was selected as one of the members of the advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Sylhet, Bangladesh.
He also served as a ‘principal investigator’ in 2009, at the Basic and Applied Research on Jute Project of Jute Research Institute, Bangladesh.
Personal life
At the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, in 2003, Maqsudul inaugurated the Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics (ASGPB). He managed a Computational Proteomics initiative that included everything from wet lab research to in-silico informatics. He did all these by combining the DNA sequencing framework of ASGPB with the bioinformatic resources of the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC). He and his team then completed a genome sequencing project of “Idiomarina loihiensis”. It is a type of bacteria but an ancient organism. This was discovered in 2003, during an expedition of University of Hawaiʻi, near the hydrothermal vents of Kamaehuakanaloa (previously known as Loihi). Hence, after the discovery of the organism, the genome sequencing was done on it.
In simple terms, ‘genome’ means the complete set of genetic information that is present in an organism. ‘Sequencing’ means to know the sequence of the bases inside an organism, so that its unique DNA fingerprint, or patterns can be identified. Finally, ‘genome sequencing’ is the whole laboratory procedure of finding the order of the bases inside the organism.
Hawaii Papaya Genome Project was a project done by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2007. It aimed to sequence the complete genome of the transgenic ‘SunUp’ papaya. To give resistance to the ‘Papaya Ringspot Virus’, the SunUp papaya underwent genetic modification. It was the first commercial transgenic (genetically modified tree) fruit tree to be sequenced. Maqsudul was a part of the team in this project. However, when Hawaiian farmers could not sell this fruit in Japan, Maqsudul, along with his teammates, assisted the farmers in navigating the regulatory process by sequencing the papayas.
Besides Hawaii, Maqsudul made some contributions in Malaysia. In 2009, at Universiti Sains Malaysia (University of Malaysia), he built the Center for Chemical Biology. There he developed different research programs, facilities, and the genome sequencing of the rubber tree (scientific name: Hevea Brasiliensis).
He did not forget to contribute for his motherland, Bangladesh too. He joined the Basic and Applied Research on Jute Project of Jute Research Institute to serve as the Principal Investigator.
If the genome sequence of Jute is known, it can become disease resistant. He knew that in Bangladesh, jute is a cash crop. Therefore, he wanted to facilitate the Bangladeshi economic sector by making jute disease resistant. In June 2010, he and his teammates worked on the process of genome sequencing the ‘Tossa’ or ‘Tosha’ jute, a type of jute plant (scientific name: Corchorus Olitorius), the Jute Plant Draft Genome. On June 16, 2010, at the Parliament, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina publicly announced the success of this project. The jute genome was successfully decoded and several patent applications were filed. This victory gave Maqsudul a global reputation. In 2012, 2 years after that initial success, he led his team to work on sequencing a jute attacking fungus called Macrophomina Phaseolina. This fungus had the potential to reduce the yield of more than 500 species of crops including jute, soybean, cotton, tobacco, maize and sunflower. In the next year, in 2013, he unraveled the genome sequencing of deshi or white jute (scientific name: Corchorus Capsularis).
Because of these decoding, it was made possible for Bangladesh to own all of the genetic records for the natural fiber, which has reemerged as an essential tool in the fight for environmentally friendly fibers. According to the experts, the length and quality of the fiber, including the colors and strength, was improved, and also, the genetic engineering was used to create high-yielding, pest- and saline soil-resistant jute kinds.
Contributions
Maqsudul was a very talented and scholarly person. He used his academic knowledge, and experiences to put into action by contributing for the world. All his contributions were his scientific career. He had set up different centers or platforms to do scientific research, projects or experiments. His works helped in the economic development of Bangladesh as well as in Hawaii. He was mainly renowned world-wide for genome sequencing.
At the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, in 2003, Maqsudul inaugurated the Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics (ASGPB). He managed a Computational Proteomics initiative that included everything from wet lab research to in-silico informatics. He did all these by combining the DNA sequencing framework of ASGPB with the bioinformatic resources of the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC). He and his team then completed a genome sequencing project of “Idiomarina loihiensis”. It is a type of bacteria but an ancient organism. This was discovered in 2003, during an expedition of University of Hawaiʻi, near the hydrothermal vents of Kamaehuakanaloa (previously known as Loihi). Hence, after the discovery of the organism, the genome sequencing was done on it.
In simple terms, ‘genome’ means the complete set of genetic information that is present in an organism. ‘Sequencing’ means to know the sequence of the bases inside an organism, so that its unique DNA fingerprint, or patterns can be identified. Finally, ‘genome sequencing’ is the whole laboratory procedure of finding the order of the bases inside the organism.
Hawaii Papaya Genome Project was a project done by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2007. It aimed to sequence the complete genome of the transgenic ‘SunUp’ papaya. To give resistance to the ‘Papaya Ringspot Virus’, the SunUp papaya underwent genetic modification. It was the first commercial transgenic (genetically modified tree) fruit tree to be sequenced. Maqsudul was a part of the team in this project. However, when Hawaiian farmers could not sell this fruit in Japan, Maqsudul, along with his teammates, assisted the farmers in navigating the regulatory process by sequencing the papayas.
Besides Hawaii, Maqsudul made some contributions in Malaysia. In 2009, at Universiti Sains Malaysia (University of Malaysia), he built the Center for Chemical Biology. There he developed different research programs, facilities, and the genome sequencing of the rubber tree (scientific name: Hevea Brasiliensis).
He did not forget to contribute for his motherland, Bangladesh too. He joined the Basic and Applied Research on Jute Project of Jute Research Institute to serve as the Principal Investigator.
If the genome sequence of Jute is known, it can become disease resistant. He knew that in Bangladesh, jute is a cash crop. Therefore, he wanted to facilitate the Bangladeshi economic sector by making jute disease resistant. In June 2010, he and his teammates worked on the process of genome sequencing the ‘Tossa’ or ‘Tosha’ jute, a type of jute plant (scientific name: Corchorus Olitorius), the Jute Plant Draft Genome. On June 16, 2010, at the Parliament, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina publicly announced the success of this project. The jute genome was successfully decoded and several patent applications were filed. This victory gave Maqsudul a global reputation. In 2012, 2 years after that initial success, he led his team to work on sequencing a jute attacking fungus called Macrophomina Phaseolina. This fungus had the potential to reduce the yield of more than 500 species of crops including jute, soybean, cotton, tobacco, maize and sunflower. In the next year, in 2013, he unraveled the genome sequencing of deshi or white jute (scientific name: Corchorus Capsularis).
Because of these decoding, it was made possible for Bangladesh to own all of the genetic records for the natural fiber, which has reemerged as an essential tool in the fight for environmentally friendly fibers. According to the experts, the length and quality of the fiber, including the colors and strength, was improved, and also, the genetic engineering was used to create high-yielding, pest- and saline soil-resistant jute kinds.
Death
On 20 December 2014, at the age of 60, Maqsudul passed away at around 2:18 am (Bangladeshi time) while he was still undergoing treatments at Queen’s Medical Center, situated in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. His elder brother, Major General (retd.) Monjurul Alam, and another brother, Mahbubul Alam Babu, confirmed this news to the media over the phone.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the then President Abdul Hamid expressed their profound shock, sadness, and condolence at the news.
Maqsudul has been suffering from liver cirrhosis for a long time. He was admitted on 2 December at the hospital for liver disease and for 18 days straight, he was undergoing different treatments. A few days prior to his last breath, suddenly he had internal bleeding in the body which resulted in dysfunction of his liver, kidney, and lung. This situation had made his overall condition worse.
3 days after his death, on 23 December 2014, as per Maqsudul’s last wish, he was laid down at the Hawaiian Memorial Park Cemetery & Funeral Services, in Hawaii, USA, at 3:00 pm of USA time.
On 24 December 2014, at his Bangladeshi residence in Lalmatia, Dhaka, a Kulkhani program was organized by his family after the Asr prayer.
Awards and Achievements
Because of his different successful stories, Maqsudul was given various awards in his lifetime. He was recognized and acknowledged not only in Bangladesh but also internationally.
Starting in 1987, from the German Science Foundation, Germany, Maqsudul was awarded the “Humboldt Research Fellow” award. After that, in 1997, he got the “NIH Shannon Award” from the USA. Once again, in 2001, by the University of Hawaii, USA, he was given the “Excellence of Research Award”.
Additionally, the University of Hawaii Foundation established a funding system called “Maqsudul Alam Graduate Research Award Fund” in honor of Maqsudul and also to aid the graduate students in their education.
Many years after getting different global recognitions, in Bangladesh, in 2016, the Government of Bangladesh awarded him posthumously with the “Independence Day Award”.
Publications
In 2008, along with 5 other researchers, Maqsudul had done a research project and published it. The name of the project was Synteny and Collinearity in Plant Genomes.
Furthermore, in the same year, his other research project, done with 4 other researchers, was published as one of the chapters of a book called Protoglobin and Globin-coupled Sensors.
Conclusion
Maqsudul was a proud Bangladeshi scientist. His hard work and dedication towards the country and wherever he had worked has left a good footprint for us to follow. Bangladesh will forever remember and acknowledge his contribution for jute production.
