Biography

 

Professor Dr. Kamaluddin Ahmad

BAAS President (1975-1976)

Professor Dr. Kamaluddin Ahmad was born on 21st December 1923 at Gohira, Chittagong, Bangladesh. He obtained B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. in Chemistry in 1943 and 1944 respectively from the University of Dhaka. He was awarded Gold Medal for his M.Sc. degree. He received Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, USA in 1949.

Professor Ahmad started his career as a Lecturer in the University of Dhaka in 1945 and retired as a Professor of the Department of Biochemistry and Director, Institute of Food and Nutrition, University of Dhaka. He was also the Vice Chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University from 5 September 1969 to 22 January 1971. His field of specialization was Biochemistry, Nutrition and Health.

Professor Ahmad was the first president of Bangladesh Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS). He was recipient of the Third World Academy of Science (Trieste) Fellowship, Nuffield Foundation Fellowship and SEATO Research Fellowship and also the Bangladesh Academy Gold Medal.

Professor K. Ahmad expired on 4 July 2004.

 

Presidential Address

28 March 1976

Science in the University Education

 

Your Excellency the President;

Your Excellencies the members of the Diplomatic Corps;

Members of the Bangladesh Association for the Advancement of Science;

Learned Guests; Ladies and gentlemen,

 

 

I feel deeply honoured to have the opportunity of addressing you today, a day which the members of the scientific community of Bangladesh have been anticipating during the past four years. I am deeply grateful to my peers for having asked me to act as general president of this conference. I have obeyed their wish with a profound sense of humility and prayed that I may come up to their expectation in the performance of my responsibility.

 

My first pleasant duty is to offer you sincerest greetings on behalf of scientists of Bangladesh. Your gracious presence here, Mr. President, associating the nobility of your person and the blessings of your exalted office with this Association and its first annual conference is an event of great significance for the present and future scientists of this country. We are thankful to you more than we could ever express in words.

 

I have no doubt that this current week of our life will be highly enriched not only by the knowledge and wisdom that we will gain through deliberations across the conference tables but also by the personal acquaintance and friendship that we will make, specially with the international guests. I take it as an occasion to reinforce our faith that science transcends international boundaries. And so does humanity.

 

To-day we solemnly pay respect to the memories of our colleagues whose life and career were cut short during the tragic circumstances of the year 1971. May their soul rest in peace. We also wish to record our sense of bereavement on the demise of our distinguished colleague, Dr. M. H. Khundkar who passed away prematurely (1972) when we needed him most. We pray for his departed soul.

 

While we had many disappointments in our failure to hold the conference earlier than now due to circumstances beyond our control, we are happy that we have been able to meet here to-day and we will, Inshah Allah be having a successful conference.

 

We the people of Bangladesh are not particularly known as wanting in intelligence. Yet it appears that our emotions, rather than our intellect are particularly responsive to external stimuli. During the past quarter of the century many political personalities made their most in exploiting the volatility of the youth in the universities and other educational institutions to compensate for their inadequacy, never allowing a spell of stability and serenity so essential for academic work. There were years when we had hardly more than 75 days in 365. It pleased us beyond measure when President‟s Adviser on Education, Science and Technology declared recently that there must be no politics in the campuses. I do not conceive that an academic community could be completely apolitical, yet its awareness of political situation must not be allowed to lead to eruptions that would destroy its own edifice. Political stability, Mr. President, is sine qua non for progress and for any creative work. With no more controversial issues to agitate about, it is hoped that we will enter into an era of renaissance for promotion of Science and Arts in this land.

We do not expect that milk and honey are going to flow in abundance here. But we believe that we should be able to make a living with dignity and are entitled to a place of respect in the community of nations. We are painfully aware that we are just about the poorest country in the world with an income no more than $64 per capita per year. We are 80 million people at this moment in this land of 55,000 square miles. We have realized that in order to eschew this unenviable situation we must increase our wealth by increasing productivity through scientific management of our soil and water, by upgrading the natural resources of this country through application of modern science and technology and by avoiding waste. We are also aware that the explosive growth of population has been retarding or nullifying all progress otherwise being made. Our human resources are indeed liabilities not only because of their over plentifulness but also because of the lack of appropriate education and skill that could transform them into agents of productivity.

 

Soon after the emergence of Bangladesh, the Government of Bangladesh established an Education Commission with some highly regarded and competent persons. After many months of hard work, they produced a document comprising their recommendations. While I would not agree with every thing they said, I was impressed with the recommendations in respect of Science education and would urge you, Mr. President, that your Government take them out of the book and animate them with action programs in order to arrest further deterioration of educational situation of the country. President Kennedy once said “A free nation can rise no higher than the standard of excellence set in its schools and colleges.” While time would not allow me to dwell at length on the extent of stagnation of education in the country, nor is it perhaps the appropriate forum, I would like to leave a few words with respect to „Science‟ in the University. As we sit here enjoying the hospitality of the University of Dacca, I would like to talk about the state of „Science‟ in this biggest and oldest institution of its kind. Most of the departments in the science faculties are seriously short of qualified teachers. Some do not have even 50 per cent of what they need. They are starved of equipment, books and literature. Even primary facilities such as gas and water are extremely unsatisfactory not to speak of sophisticated equipment so essential for quality research in this competitive world of science. A researcher returns home at the end of the day with annoyance and frustrations rather than with eagerness and inspiration for what he would be doing on the following day. The result is that what could be done in a day or a week in an institution elsewhere cannot be accomplished in six months, a year or ever. A young brilliant man soon withers and fossilizes. And science in Bangladesh stagnates.

 

Most  departments  have  been  overburdened  with  „extra‟  students whom they could not accommodate and they did not want. It must have been a political decision to admit a large number of students who were ill equipped to pursue higher education and who would not benefit academically from their years in a university. University education in Science Faculties where students are admitted for instruction at Honours and Post-graduate levels of specialization must be selective. Let us insist on quality. Further, when our resources are so limited we have to be discriminating in according priorities in the list of our requirements for class rooms, libraries and laboratories as well as hostels and playgrounds.

 

We sent a number of young scholars and teachers for higher studies abroad. We hoped that they would return to their institutions after completion of their studies and take part in the promotion of scientific efforts of the country. Most of them have not come back. There are reasons much too overt to need explanation. And certainly it is not any deficiency of patriotism. But time has changed now. There should be positive move on behalf of the home institutions and the Government to bring them back with adequate incentive and support so that the nation gets the best use of their talent and training. They must be financially compensated according to their proven merit, and appropriately recognized and rewarded for achievements accomplished. In the past, enough of naiveté has been demonstrated in fixing reimbursement for various echelons of public service utterly incompatible with the cost of basic needs such as food, clothing and housing. Hunger may perhaps stimulate a poet; a starving scientist is unable to do a worthwhile job.

 

There has never been any man power planning and quantitative evaluation of the need of the country for training in specific areas of science and technology. The result is that there is acute scarcity in one discipline while there is relative excess in another resulting in unemployment and frustration. May I ask: how many natural philosophers do we need at this stage of development? Or is it that we need more urgently some ecologists to study the effect of the growing insult to our environment with rising population pressure and side effects of modern agriculture and industrialization? Can we not afford a few plant breeders developing varieties of mango plants that will be resistant to insect infestations and will continue to bear fruits throughout the year to protect our children from Vitamin-A deficiency and consequent blindness? There must be certain agencies to provide guidelines to universities and institutions of higher training estimating present need and giving projection of future needs in the light of the development plans of the nation.

In my opinion there is great need for intermediate technologists. For health services of the country what we need more urgently are just adequately trained physicians who would be able to treat common diseases. They would be comparable with earlier licentiates (LMF) who used to have four years of medical schooling following their high school diploma. Their service geared to a referral system would certainly meet the basic need of health services of the country. Let there be one medical school in every sub-division of the country. Similarly it is my belief that

 

what we need more pressingly are agricultural schools of intermediate level in every sub-division where students would be taught practice of scientific agriculture in partnership with local farmers in addition to what they would learn in class rooms and libraries. These intermediate technologists would be able to take over the rural areas of Bangladesh and bring about tremendous improvement in the delivery of health services and agricultural extension service with less cost and more effectiveness. I suggest that we study in depth the action program of out great neighbour– the People‟s Republic of China which has made great strides in solving the problems of agriculture, health service, population, and in other allied fields related to welfare of common man. The prophet‟s advise to go to China to seek knowledge and wisdom was never more appropriate than now for the people of Bangladesh.

One thing that has impressed me a great deal is the incorporation of traditional medicine of China with those of modern Western medicine in the curricula of medical schools in China. Would it not be sensible if we could include some standardized preparation of local herbs in the Bangladesh pharmacopoeia thus encouraging a physician to prescribe an indigenous medicine when there is a choice for him to do so? This would mean that he could perhaps prescribe a preparation of punarnava (Boerhaavia diffusa Linn.) instead of cytosine arabinoside as an anti inflammatory drug, a preparation on Dutpata (Euphorbia hirta) in place of ampicillin or a preparation of amlaki (Emblica officinalis) in place of vitamin C tablets and syrups. In parenthesis I wish to submit that there is great need for intensive research in local medicinal resources. Let us not forget that a clump of root from Cabeza de negro in the jungles of Mexico coupled with the eccentricity of a Professor (Russel Marker) made possible the pill of the population programs all over the world. Some alkaloids, more specifically reserpin in roots of Rauvolfia serpentina from this sub-continent made epoch making contribution in the management of hypertension. There are possibilities that tropical plants may provide compounds with

anticancer activity in the way they provide compounds for treatment of cardiac diseases (C & E. N. Dec. 22, 1975, p-21).

A five to ten year program for development of scientific man power and scientific institutions is the need of the day. The  training program is to be tailored to the need of the country not necessarily to the “need” of the trainee. It is widely felt that only post doctoral scholars should be encouraged to study abroad. This, however, means that there must be facilities of laboratory and library in the country itself to permit doctoral level studies. I am afraid they do not exist in most branches of experimental sciences at the moment. The Central Medical Library recently established by the Government with the assistance of the Asia Foundation will meet to a great extent the need of the medical scientists. We wish, however, to see a central library of science and technology coming into being as soon as possible. Without creation of adequate facilities at home, just sending out scholars abroad for training or higher studies will contribute little to the advancement of scientific research in this county.

The Government once constituted a National Council of Science and Technology (NCST) to promote, coordinate, evaluate, overview and review scientific research in the country. This however, never functioned. It is my understanding that the Government has now under consideration the question of reconstituting the same. Given adequate funds and authority the reconstituted NCST should turn into an instrument of great import for development of Science. It is our hope that the Government will do the needful without delay. There are instances of wasteful duplication which must be halted. There instances of dissipation of energy and founds on problems totally irrelevant to the need Bangladesh. The NCST is expected to be able to identify the national problems and distinguish between the necessity and the luxury. As the NCST may not have direct jurisdiction over the universities it is hoped that the University Grants Commission will acquire competence and authority to sort out things of this kind in the universities.

 

The Government has repeatedly declared that the number ONE problem of the country is explosion of its population. It is nightmarish to think of 160 million people in fifty five thousand square miles in just 20 years time. What can scientists do about it? We support the vigorous measures being pursued by the Government to arrest population explosion. We appreciate the Government‟s emphasis on rural development with special reference to agriculture and health aspect. We recognize that traditionally the principal role of women of his country was being housewife– that is raising families. But time has changed. She must now assume equal partnership with man in all endeavours including promotion of health, education, industries and agriculture. We support the Government in encouraging more and more women to make of employment opportunities that had been so long monopoly of men. We would indeed urge the Government to create more and more jobs for women in the rural areas not only to promote village economy, but also to initiate a life style conducive to our population concept. We further believe that reduction of child mortality through better nutrition and measures of preventive medicine, such as, immunity against infections and communicable disease, will help us reach the goal.

With the availability of prefabricated turn-key installations, the lure of implantation of foreign technology is great. In our enthusiasm and in view of urgent economic necessity to go industrial it is quite possible that we may ignore to make a thorough assessment of ecological repercussions of out “programs of progress”. It may sound like an anticlimax after all that has been said about the human misery and loss of agricultural and forest wealth when I mention about the tremendous increase in the snail population of the Rangamati area following the building of the dam. Flukes (Schistosomiasis) may not assail our vital organs but it is known that a lot of economic plants is being destroyed by this mollusc. Now that we are proposing to go nuclear for our energy needs a thorough study of its implications, in as much as it may affect the environment with a very dense human population, must precede.

Agriculture is the mainstay of our life and economy. Advent of HYV has made its own impact on our agriculture as it has done in the rest of the world. But rice and wheat only fill the belly. They are not enough to meet the physiological requirements of nutrients for growth and development. I have seen population groups in Bangladesh consuming large amount of rice every day, yet suffering from diseases due to malnutrition. We need agriculture with sound nutritional content. In addition to cereals we need legumes, vegetables, fruits and oil seeds. Agricultural research and other related activates here are extremely limited and far too inadequate. Great progress has been made elsewhere. We hear of sweet potatoes containing almost as much protein as rice and very rich in vitamin A values. Yet sweet potatoes deliver more calories than any other crop from unit area of our land. In 10-20 years time we should be eating a lot of high potency sweet potatoes. Then there is the case of exotic plants such as cassava for calories, and oil palms for oil and vitamins. They seem to offer promise in certain areas of this country. I would plead for establishment of vegetable and fruit research centers, if required with international cooperation. Along with emphasis on production, there is need for adopting suitable measures to prevent loss and spoilage of food grains and other food stuffs. It is estimated that some 20 to 40 per cent of food are lost in its passage from farm to plate. All of this is not obligatory. As a nutritionist, I will also point out that an appreciable amount of nutrients are also lost during their passage through the gastrointestinal tract due to diarrhoeal and other malabsorption syndromes form which so many of us, specially the mothers and children suffer.

There is also plenty of scope of research in animal sciences. A Japanese hen lays 365 eggs in 365 days of the year, while local hen hardly lays more than 70 eggs. An American cow produces 10,000 lbs of milk a year whereas Bangladeshi cow hardly produces 1,000 lbs. Our agriculture must absorb new ideas in order to be more potent and meaningful in terms of its ability to promote and protect better health.

 

We in Bangladesh wish to express out solidarity with the peace loving communities of the world. We are distressed to see so much of strife taking place in so many countries– the race for making more deadly weapons and the craze and vanity of some nations for joining or having joined the so-called nuclear club when millions of people starve and die. We believe in cooperation between nations for the welfare of man, no matter where they live, upstream or downstream. We in this country believe in the paramount of God over the universe. Let us seek knowledge as directed in the holy Quran: Unjuru ma fis samawate oa ma fiel Arde and use it in the service of man for “the good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge” (B.R.).