By TCN News,
Aligarh: Prof. Wasim Ahmad, Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has been selected for the prestigious ‘Prof. E.K. Janaki Ammal National Award’ on Animal Taxonomy – 2009 for his distinguished and outstanding contribution to the field of taxonomy and biodiversity of soil inhabiting nematodes.
Notably, in order to encourage work of excellence in taxonomy and also to encourage young students and scholars to work in this science, Ministry for Environment and Forests, Government of India instituted a National Award in 1999 named after the late Prof. E.K. Janaki Ammal who devoted her entire life to taxonomic work.
Prof. Wasim Ahmad
The award carries Rs.1, 00,000/- cash along with a citation, scroll and Medallion. It is conferred on 5th June every year at the World Environment Day function organized by the Ministry of Environment and Forest.
Prof. Ahmad has made outstanding contribution in the field of Biodiversity, taxonomy, ecology and phylogenomics of soil inhabiting nematodes. In his about 170 research papers which have been published in foreign journals, he has described some 290 new species and over 40 new genera of soil inhabiting nematodes which include some interesting taxa such as a marine residual form from silent valley, several new nematode genera and species from North-East and other biodiversity rich areas of the country. He has also distinction of describing several new taxa of soil inhabiting nematodes from over twenty different countries in East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Singapore), Africa (Cameroon, Bennin, Azores, Dominica, Ivory Coast, and New Guinae), Europe (Germany, UK, Austria, Spain, and Turkey), Central America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Colombia) and New Zealand.
Prof. Ahmad’s monumental book titled “Dorylaimida; Free-living, predaceous and plant parasitic nematodes” published by E.J. Brill, Leiden is a unique world-wide reference for study of dorylaim nematodes and till date it is the most cited book in nematode taxonomy. A similar treatise by him on Mononchida was published in 2010 by E.J. Brill under their prestigious Nematology Monograph series.
He has visited a large number of countries of the world as an expert for the study of dorylaim and mononchid nematodes and is recipient of prestigious visiting fellowships/scholarships from Royal Society (London), DFG (Germany), Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (Japan), Erasmus Mundus Scholar (European Union), Chinese Academy of Sciences (China), KOSEF (Korea), TWAS (Italy), Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research Fellowship of National University of Singapore and Institute Nacional de Biodiversidad, Costa Rica visiting Fellowship and many others.
Besides, he is a Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and has received many awards and medals from several scientific societies. He has guided several students for their M.Phil. and Ph.D. degree and is regularly associated with imparting taxonomic training at National and International level.