Kamaluddin Ahmad

Kamaluddin Ahmad (b. 1921, d. 2004) was a scientist who led the creation of one of the earliest stand-alone biochemistry departments in the Indian Subcontinent when he founded one in 1957 at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now, Bangladesh). He went on to establish the Department of Pharmacy (1964) and the Institute of Nutrition and Food Sciences (1969) at the same university. Through his own research achievements and his relentless advocacy, Professor Ahmad demonstrated the importance of science education and scientific research in the amelioration of problems associated with poverty and disease. The 1966 East Pakistan Nutrition Survey that he led was the first major scientific research inquiry on the health and nutrition conditions of people across the country. The East Pakistan survey, with more than 15,000 people in the sample population, was not only the largest of a series of national nutrition surveys sponsored by the US Government, but one that was carried out over an extended period of time (2 years), which revealed seasonal variations that could not be made with the usual survey that typically lasted two months. The revelation of widespread Protein-Energy Malnutrition, Vitamin A deficiency and endemic expressions of iodine deficiency in certain parts of the country turned the 1966 Nutrition Survey into a rallying cry for attention into the neglected health conditions of a majority of the people. Ahmad continued his monitoring and advocacy for nutrition in Bangladesh by carrying out significant follow-up surveys of rural Bangladesh in 1975-76 and 1982. 
==Early life==
Ahmad was born, the third child and the eldest son of Hamdu Miah and Beguma Khatoon in the village of Gohira, Chittagong, Bangladesh on December 21, 1921. After completing his higher secondary education in Chittagong College, he graduated with a First Class First in Chemistry from the University of Dhaka and then earned a Master’s in Chemistry. He began his PhD studies in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison w studying under cientists such as Harry Steenbock, Conrad Elvejehm and Frank Strong. During his time in Wisconsin, the British finally left India and Ahmad returned as a senior lecturer in chemistry at University of Dhaka, his alma mater in the newly-independent state of Pakistan. On August 19, 1951, he married Nahar Kamal Ahmad. Within weeks, they traveled together to Glasgow, Scotland wherhe undertook research as a Nuffield Dominion Fellow under Sir James Wilfred Cook, who later reflected being “very much struck by the neatness and elegance of the synthetic methods which he [Ahmad] devised.”
==Research & teaching==
Ahmad published over 200 articles in professional journals based in South Asia, USA and UK. During his PhD research at the University of Wisconsin, he and Professor Frank Strong carried out original work on the newly discovered antibiotic Antimycin A, an important tool in the study of biological oxidation. He went on developed a new and generalizable method for synthesis of unsaturated fatty acids like vaccenic acid. He contributed to the finding of the structure of colchicines and the synthesis of sphingosine. 
Early in his career (1955), he discovered Ramnacin, the first crystalline antibiotic from the Indian Sub-continent. His report on the discovery of Ramnacin, published in Nature, helped trigger a wider study of microbiology in the region. His subsequent research reflected his wide intellectual interests but also a desire to focus scientific inquiry on health and nutritional problems affecting the poor. He identified vitamin A deficiency as the most important predisposing factor in the etiology of nutritional anemia in Bangladesh and showed that iron supplementation would not correct anemia if Vitamin A deficiency was not corrected at the same time. He demonstrated that beta carotene was superior to retinol in reversing Vitamin A deficiency symptoms (xerosis, Bitot’s spots) in malnourished children. He further showed that carotene is not optimally converted to retinol in children with iodine deficiency. His was one of the scientists who very early recognized the interactions and synergies among micronutrients.
Recognizing the debilitating role nutritional deficiencies and infections in the lives of the poor, he was constantly in search of low-cost, widely accessible plant medicines. In part encouraged by his wife’s knowledge of folk practices of Bengal, he analyzed extracts of certain common plants of Bangladesh which he scientifically proved as efficacious in the treatment of diarrhea caused by vibrio cholerae and by strains of shigellae that were resistant to conventional antibiotics. Extracts made in his laboratory were indicated to be useful in the treatment of tuberculosis, leprosy, rheumatic fever and urinary tract infections. With his son Osman Ahmad, he identified the crystalline structure and demonstrated that the in situ extract isolated from plants was more efficacious than the synthetic compound.
The spread of cholera precipitated by frequent floods in Bangladesh also concerned Dr. Ahmad. For this, he demonstrated that common diarrhea-causing E. coli and vibrios could be removed from flood contaminated water by placing small amounts or readily available potassium alum in the containers. This simple method has been successfully popularized by NGOs in Bangladesh including Grameen Bank and BRAC. 
In the 1980s when there was an outbreak of lathyrism in Bangladesh, he focused his attention on finding ways to prevent this disease. Although lathyrism – a neurological disorder that renders its victims paralyzed – was known to have afflicted its victims since the time of Hippocrates, no effective therapy against it had been discovered. Research on lathyrism was impeded by scientists’ inability to produce the disease in experimental animals. Professor Ahmad produced the first experimental cases of lathyrism in animals and demonstrated that Vitamin C supplementation could prevent and in some cases even reverse the paralysis. He further demonstrated that Vitamin C is effective in countering the toxicity of mono sodium glutamate (MSG).
==Accolades==
In 1967, Ahmad was feted as the “Best University Professor” in a Pride of Performance Award from the President of Pakistan. He was subsequently also awarded the civil honors of TQA and SK by the President of Pakistan. He was a recipient of a Gold Medal from the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (1969 and a Gold Medal from the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. He was elected a Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences based in Trieste, Italy. Professor Ahmad was the only invited speaker from outside of the US at the symposium celebrating the first century of agricultural chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin where he presented his work on lathyrism. 
Upon his death, the international research institute ICDDR,B and the Kamaluddin Ahmad Trust held a major symposium on Dr. Ahmad’s professional legacyNutrition & Biochemical Sciences for the Benefit of Mankind. ICDDRB News. A volume of remembrance consisting of contributions by colleagues, students, family and admirers was also released during the symposium. The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Dhaka named the main lecture hall as Professor Kamaluddin Ahmad Gallery and initiated an annual memorial lecture. The Institute of Nutrition and Food Sciences, also at the University of Dhaka, unveiled a wall-sized mosaic portrait of Professor Ahmad at its premises to mark the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Institute. Professor Ahmad’s eldest son, Ishtiaq, established an endowed fellowship at Professor Ahmad’s alma mater in Wisconsin to fully fund a continuing program of selected PhD students at Madison coming from Bangladesh. The family mosque in Professor Ahmad’s birthplace in Gohira, Chittagong has been reconstructed to provide both women and men the opportunity to pray and learn side by side and re-dedicated to Professor Ahmad’s memory and his devotion to the cultivation of equity, faith and reason.
Category:2004 deaths
Category:1921 births
Category:Scientists
Category:University of Dhaka alumni