Abed Chaudhury
Abed Chaudhury (born February 1956) is an Australian-Bangladeshi scientist, author, and poet living in Australia. Early life and education. He was born into a Bengali Muslim family known as the Zamindars of Kanihati in Hajipur Union, Kulaura, Moulvibazar District. The family trace their origin to Shah Halim ad-Din Narnauli, a 14th-century Arab missionary who settled in the area. His father was Abdul Mannan (Ibrahim) Chaudhury and mother was Hafiza Khatun. Chaudhury was a student at the Moulvibazar Government High School, before proceeding to study at the Notre Dame College of Dhaka. Completing his bachelor's  degree in chemistry from Dhaka University, Chaudhury got his PhD from University of Oregon and did post-doctoral research at National Institutes of Health and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, and was a visiting scientist at École Normale Supérieure in France. Work in science. Chaudhury is a well-known geneticist and writer in both Bengali and English who together with colleagues in Australia isolated the FIS (fertilization independent seed) genes; fis mutants can produce partial seed without fertilization. These are the first characterised genes involved in apomixis, a method of making seed without the father. Earlier in  USA he did seminal work on gene-targeting and in development of Arabidopsis as a model organism. He established broad areas of research in Plant Biology by deciphering the genetic pathway of male fertility, seed size, and the role of epigenetics in seed development. He is currently the Head of Scientific Innovation at LoamBio based in Australia. Earlier in his career he worked at National Institute of Health of USA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ecole Normale Superieure, CSIRO, Vitagrain and Syngenta. Chaudhury has established Krishan a new farmer-led innovation platform for increasing biodiversity and generation of climate-compliant  crop. He is an author of numerous scientific publications as well as non-fiction books and several books of poetry in both Bangla and English. Chaudhury is currently living in Australia. Writing. His first book "Shoibal O Ontorikko" () was an anthology of poems published by Dibya Prokash in 1999. Columns. He has written many articles in several science journals for scientists and in normal papers for general people in Bengali and English.