Biotech Beacon Bids Farewell: Professor Ahmad Shamsul Islam Passes Away at 100
Professor Ahmad Shamsul Islam, a centenarian and one of the founding figures of modern biotechnology research in Bangladesh, passed away on Monday, April 14. A retired professor from the Department of Botany at the University of Dhaka, he was laid to rest at Banani Graveyard following his Janazah prayer held after Zuhr at Gulshan Azad Mosque. Earlier that morning, he breathed his last at a hospital in Dhaka. (Inna Lillahi wa Inna Ilayhi Raji’un).
Professor Islam was a pioneer in plant tissue culture and biotechnology in Bangladesh. He established the first Plant Tissue Culture and Genetics Laboratory at the University of Dhaka and was instrumental in founding the GNOBB (Global Network of Bangladeshi Biotechnologists), an organization that brought together biotechnology professionals from across the country.
He is survived by countless admirers, students, and his three children. His elder son, Professor Yusuf Mahbubul Islam, is the Vice-Chancellor of Southeast University. His younger son, Khalid Islam, is employed at a multinational company in the United States. His only daughter, Professor Zeba Islam Seraj, served as a professor at the University of Dhaka and is now a member of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh.
Born on August 6, 1924, Professor Islam completed his matriculation from Rajshahi Collegiate School in 1941 and his intermediate from Rajshahi College in 1943. He earned his honors in Botany from Presidency College, Kolkata in 1945, followed by a master’s degree in 1947. In 1954, he completed his PhD in Botany (Cytogenetics) from the University of Manchester under the sponsorship of the British Council. The same year, he received the Curry Memorial Prize for his groundbreaking research on seedless strawberries.
Throughout his distinguished academic career, Professor Islam made significant contributions to scientific literature. In the 1950s, his research at the University of Dhaka was published in the prestigious journal Nature. A pivotal paper published in 1960, co-authored with a colleague, detailed the world’s first successful hybridization between two jute-yielding species, a breakthrough that continues to influence research today. As noted in a government-sponsored paper on jute genomics, "One can cite several important papers of Prof Islam to justify his pioneering role in the foundation of biotechnology in Bangladesh, including the early work on jute genomics and breeding. In a paper published in 1960 in the Nature journal, he and his colleague were the first in the world to successfully produce a hybrid between two jute-yielding species, which continues to make impact in current research. Between 1952 and 1964, he produced three more papers in Nature on cytogenetics and embryo culture by use of plant hormones."
His excellence in education and research earned him numerous accolades, including the President’s Gold Medal in Agriculture in 1984 and the Ekushey Padak in Education in 1986.
Professor Ahmad Shamsul Islam remains a lighthouse of inspiration, whose legacy continues to shape Bangladesh’s scientific landscape.
