Zoological Society of India Lifetime Award to Prof. Shamim Jairajpuri

Guwahati: Renowned Zoologist and founder Vice Chancellor of MANUU, Prof. M. Shamim Jairajpuri has been conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award in Zoology by the Zoological Society of India at the National Congress of Zoology held in Guwahati. Governor of Meghalaya Shri Moosaharry presented Prof. Jairajpuri the award. This is for the first time that anyone has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Zoological Society of India.

Governor Moosaharry also presented him the eminent Indian Zoologist Gold Medal together with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Prof. Jairajpuri has earlier received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Parasitology by the India Society for Parasitology in 2007 and the Lifetime Achievement in recognition of his research in Nematology by the Nematological Society of India as they conferred on him the Honorary Fellowship of Society in 2006.

Prof. Mohd. Shamim Jairajpuri was born in 1942 in the village Jairajpur, District Azamgarh, U.P. He obtained his B.Sc. (1959), M.Sc. (1961) and Ph. D(1964) from Aligarh Muslim University.Prof. Jairajpuri was first appointed a Lecturer (1964) then a Reader (1972), Professor (1983), Chariman (1988-89 & 1997-98) of the Zoology Department and Dean (1993-95 & 1997-98) of the Faculty of Life Sciences, AMU. The degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) was awarded to him in Zoology by Aligarh Muslim University in 1970 on his outstanding work on Neuratology in particular on Taxonomy, at a young age of 28 years only.

Prof. Mohd. Shamim Jairajpuri, has done pioneering research on plant and soil nematodes for which the Zoological Survey of India awarded him with gold medal in 1997 and 1998. He is considered a renowned world authority in this subject. He has published over 20 Books and Monograms, over 350 research papers and contributed numerous book chapters and general articles in reputed Journals of the world. He has the distinction of publishing over 80 research papers in Nematologica (The Netherlands) and over 40 papers in Revue de Nematologie (France), the two top most international journals in the subject of Nematology.

In 1991, Prof. Mohd. Shamim Jairajpuri was appointed Coordinator of the Agriculture Center at AMU and became the Founder Director of the Institute of Agriculture in 1993 and worked in that capacity until July 1996 and through ceasless efforts he developed it into an organisation of national status. He was the Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences and also simultaneously Chairman of the Department of Zoology, Museology and Wildlife Sciences. Prof. Jairajpuri, who was Vice Chancellor of MANUU from 9.1.1998 to 8.1.2003, is member of several high-powered committees of the Government of India and University Grants Commission.