Mohammed Rahmatullah

Mohammed Rahmatullah (Bengali: মোহাম্মদ রহমত উল্লাহ; born 31 August 1951) is a Bangladeshi biologist and educator. He has published nearly 500 full length research articles.

Early life

Rahmatullah was born on 31 August 1951. He completed his Secondary School Certificate Examination from St. Gregory's High School (Dhaka), Bangladesh in 1967 finishing in First Division. He completed his Higher Secondary Certificate Examination from Dhaka Government College in 1969 in First Division. He obtained his BSc (Honours) degree in Biochemistry from the University of Dhaka in 1974, securing First Class First position. He obtained his MSc (Thesis) degree in Biochemistry from the University of Dhaka in 1976 securing Second Class First position (no First Classes were given). He obtained his PhD from the University of Hong Kong in 1982 under the Commonwealth Scholarship program.

Career

He began his career as a lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Dhaka (1976–78). He was a Commonwealth Research Scholar at the University of Hong Kong (1978–82) and a postdoctoral fellow and later research associate at the Department of Biochemistry, Kansas State University (1982–90). He was a research fellow at Auburn University, United States (1990–92), and associate scientist and later research scientist at the Weis Center for Research, Pennsylvania, United States (1992–2000).

He served as the dean of the School of Life Sciences and professor and head of the Department of Biotechnology at Khulna University in Bangladesh from 2000 to 2002. He joined the University of Development Alternative (UODA) as the dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences in 2002. He became pro-vice-chancellor in 2008.

Significant research accomplishments

His research accomplishments include:

• Improved determination methods for urea and citrulline (his two papers on this have been cited 291 and 234 times, respectively)
• Discovered a new sub-unit of pyruvate dehydrogenase enzyme
• Discovered a novel kinase from Candida lipolytica
• Carried out ethnomedicinal surveys on more than 50 Bangladeshi tribes and more than 400 folk medicinal practitioners, yielding the largest data base containing more than 800 medicinal plants
• Conducted surveys on functional and famine food plants
• Discovered phytoremediating plants that can effectively remove arsenic, tannery waste and textile dyes from soil and water
• Discovered novel methods of fish cultivation in small ditches and ponds, to help marginal farmers
• Improved methods for clonal propagation of multiple endangered medicinal plant species
• Discovered and patented a procedure for extracting material from rice husks that can cure bird flu (caused by H5N1 virus), cure fish, shrimp, and poultry diseases, and a potential for pancreatic cancer treatment

Rahmatullah's research led to identification of anti-diabetic, analgesic and anti-cancer plants in Bangladesh. Rahmatullah's research papers have been cited a total of 4,542 times (as of 14 March 2014). From 2010 to 2013, Rahmatullah was the top publishing author in SCOPUS abstracted scientific journals. He was named as one of the 64 topmost Bangladeshi researchers of the millennium by Bangladesh Research Development Center.

Personal life

Mohammed Rahmatullah is married to Raownak Jahan, who is also a faculty member at University of Development Alternative.

References

• "Professor Dr. Mohammed Rahmatullah – Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
• "University of Development Alternative: UODA". University of Development Alternative. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
• "Mohammed Rahmatullah interview". www.scientificbangladesh.com. Retrieved 24 March 2016.