Prof. Wasim Ahmad of AMU received the highest award for Animal Taxonomy, E.K. Janaki Ammal National Award

ALIGARH, June 23: Prof. Wasim Ahmad, Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University has received E.K. Janaki Ammal National Award, the highest award for Animal Taxonomy instituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. He received this prestigious award from Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Hon’ble Minister of Environment and Forest, Government of India and Mr. Achim Steiner, UN Undersecretary General and Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at a World Environment Day programme in New Delhi. The award carries a medallion, a scroll, a citation and a cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-. Dr. D. B. Singh, Director, Botanical Survey of India received the Award for Plant Taxonomy. Dr. Ahmad is the youngest to have been honored with this award since its inception in 1999 by the Government of India.

Dr. Ahmad is an Internationally acclaimed nematode taxonomist with over three decades of research experience in soil nematode fauna of different geographical regions of India. He has described several hundred new taxa of nematodes. He has also the distinction of describing large number of new nematode taxa from over twenty different countries of the world.

Dr. Ahmad has several books and monographs to his credit published by the world renowned publisher, E.J. Brill, Leiden, the Netherlands. He has visited many countries as an expert of nematode taxonomy and is recipient of prestigious visiting fellowships from Royal Society, London (UK), Dutches Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (Japan), Erasmus Mundus Scholar (European Union), Chinese Academy of Sciences (China), Third World Academy of Science (Italy), Korean Science Foundation (Korea), Raffles Museum Visiting Fellowship (Singapore), Institute Nacional de Biodiversidad (Costa Rica) etc.,

Dr. Wasim’s international recognition can be ascertained from the fact that in 1996, scientists from the British Museum Natural History, London named a new genus of nematode Wasimellus enigmatus Bloemers & Wanless in recognition of his contribution to Nematode taxonomy. This is a very rare recognition for an Indian Scientists to achieve at international level. His admirers have dedicated several other new species in his name, Laimydorus wasimi, Bohra & Baqri, Mylonchulus wasimi Tiasi, Chatterjee & Manna; Helicotylenchus wasimi Gantait, Bhattacharya & Chatterjee; Aporcelaimellus ahmadi Sergio and Pena-Santiago etc.