By TwoCircles.net Special Correspondent
Lucknow: Prof. Mahdi Hasan died today at 6.00 pm in the critical care medicine department ICU, SGPGI, Lucknow. He will be buried tomorrow morning in Imambara Gufra Maab sahib.
Prof Hasan who was a Padma Shri Recipient (2012) was born on March 21, 1936 in village Gadayan, Akbarpur (then in Faizabad, now Ambedkar Nagar,) in UP.
He was a Senior/Hony. Scientist of the Indian National Science Academy and Hony. Professor of the Department of Anatomy, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow and formerly Principal and Chief Medical Superintendent (1983-87), Dean (1992-94), Professor (1972-96) and Chairman of Anatomy (1983-87,1990-93), Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh.
He was also the recipient of the prestigious Dr B.C. Roy National Award in the category of “Eminent Medical Teacher” (1991-92). Over 12, 200 of his former students are practicing modern medicine around the globe.
Padma Bhushan Dr. Naresh Trehan the internationally renowned heart surgeon and Padma Shri Dr. Ashok Seth Chairman of Escorts Heart Institute are two of his most illustrious students (1963 batch of KGMC, Lucknow and 1974 batch JNMC, Aligarh respectively).
Hasan’s persistent endeavour has been to pursue basic medical research, often linked with clinical applications. The main thrust has been to study problems of national relevance, such as environmental pollution, pesticide and metal neurotoxicity, hydrocephalus and brain ageing. His research group proposed a new hypothesis for the genesis of lipofuscin (age-pigment) in 1972 which was confirmed by Scandinavian group in 2002.
He also discovered a new technique for demonstrating zinc in brain sections. His more than 135 original research papers, in reputed indexed journals, have received over 660 citations in journals of international repute and 38 books, including Gray’s Anatomy. He has also published 6 books (one only in the month of December 2012, in spite of being terminally ill) and contributed chapters in eight books.
Dr Hasan’s academic qualifications’ include MBBS, MS (with Honours in Anatomy, the first in India), Ph.D., D.Sc., F.A.M.S., F.I.C.S., FRMS, FNASc. and FNA.