Recently, Jamia Millia Islamia’s Prof. Imran Ali’s selection as the number one scientist in India in Analytical Chemistry by a group of American scientists from the University of Stanford has brought focus on the scientific research activities in the premier higher education institutions founded by Indian Muslims.
In recent years, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and Jamia Hamdard (JH) are constantly getting recognition in India as well as abroad for their outstanding feats in high-quality research and scientific output. The best national and international institutes are increasingly identifying and rewarding the academic rigour and the innovative work of the bright minds at these institutions of repute.
While the AMU occupies a unique position amongst universities and institutions of higher learning in the country, it ranks 8th among the top 20 research universities in India.
Just a month back, renowned cardiothoracic surgeon and former AMU Pro Vice Chancellor, Prof Hanif Beg received ‘Outstanding Scientist Award’ in the medicine category at VDGOOD International Scientist Awards in Trichy. He is a pioneer in performing endoscopy and endoscopic removal of various foreign bodies from aero-digestive tracts since 1983. He has invented many new techniques such as designing the ‘Intercostal Tube drainage System’, which saves precious lives.
He has published over 161 research papers in journals of national and international repute and attended more than 122 conferences in India and abroad. He is on the editorial board of 15 journals acclaimed nationally and internationally and has been honoured with fellowships such as FICA, FIACS, FICS.
Another AMU scientist, Dr. Hifzur R Siddique discovered Central Regulatory of Pathway of Liver Cancer caused by Alcohol drinking and Hepatitis infection for therapeutic treatment. He along with Prof Keigo Machida of University of Southern California, LA and other collaborators discovered this treatment of the lethal disease. Siddique and Machida discovered the molecular mechanisms of a cancer-causing protein, TBC1D15. The study recently appeared in the prestigious journal, Nature Communications 11 (2020).
Dr Siddique informed that annually, more than half million new cases of liver cancer patients are diagnosed and the 5-year survival rate is only 10-20% till today against 91% for breast cancer. Liver Cancer is largely traced in developing or under developed countries where 80-83% of patients are found.
As AMU celebrates its centenary year, three of the university’s young and talented savants from the Neutrino Physics Group have received esteemed international exchange fellowship programmes. They are Dr Huma Haider, Zubair Ahmed Dar and Faiza Akbar.
Dr Huma Haider (Assistant Professor, Physics Section of Women’s College) has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Iowa, USA for two years.
Zubair Ahmed Dar, a Ph.D. student working at Fermilab under an AMU-Fermilab collaboration programme for over two years, has also received a postdoctoral fellowship for two years at William and Mary, a public research university in the USA. Similarly, Faiza Akbar, who is also working on her Ph.D. thesis under the AMU-Fermilab collaboration for the past four years.
Dr Inamuddin, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Chemistry, was conferred with the ‘AMU Young Researcher of the Year Award’ in the Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and Unani Medicine category in the online Sir Syed Day commemorative function on October 17.
Four scientists from the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC), Prof. Saeedul Hasan Arif, Kafeel Akhtar, Shagufta Qadri and Suhailur Rahman have jointly been awarded the prestigious William Harvey Award for 2015 in the field of Haematology.
Prof Rashid Umar of the Department of Geology has been awarded the National Award for Excellence in Ground Water Science for 2019.
Dr Bushra Ateeq, an AMU alumnus, has been honoured with India’s highest science award Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 2020 for her outstanding work in the field of Medical Sciences.
Another alumnus, Dr. Syed Rafatullah was conferred Lifetime Achievement Award for Best Researcher in Unani Medicine by the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine, Ministry of AYUSH (Government of India) this year. He undertook preliminary pharmacological and toxicological screening of about 250 Saudi Medicinal Plants and more than 395 crude drugs used in Saudi folk medicine. He is based now in Riyadh and his drug ‘o Dual Effect of Okra Pods Mucus as a Binding and Super Disintegrative Agent for Tablets’ is pending for patent.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the highest research body in medicine, has awarded the Phase-III, COVID19 Covaxin trials to AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital (JNMCH) which aimed at evaluating the safety and efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine.
AMU PRO Omer Peerzada told Radiance that these achievements reflect the AMU’s ever-expanding research base and scientific outputs.
Another reputed institution Jamia Millia Islamia, which is also celebrating its centenary years, is making news for its scientific feats. Prof. Imran Ali of the Department of Chemistry has been selected as the number one scientist in India and 24th in the field of Analytical Chemistry by a group of scientists from the University of Stanford, USA.
PLOS Biology has published the list of 68,80,389 scientists excelling in different scientific fields in the research paper entitled “Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators” authored by John P A Ioannidis et al.
Apart from Prof. Ali, other elite scientists from the university who secured their names in the coveted 2% top scientists list include Prof. Mohammad Sami, Centre for Theoretical Physics: All India Rank: 10 in Nuclear & Particle Physics; Prof. Anjan Ananda Sen, Centre for Theoretical Physics: All India Rank: 31 in Nuclear & Particle Physics; Prof. Sharif Ahmad, Dept. of Chemistry: All India Rank: 1048 in Polymers; Prof. Haseeb Ahsan, Faculty of Dentistry, All India Rank: 377 in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Prof. Sushant Ghosh, Centre for Theoretical Physics; All India Rank: 782 in Nuclear & Particle Physics; Prof. Tabrez A. Khan, Dept. of Chemistry; All India Rank: 831 in Environmental Sciences; Dr. Rafiq Ahmad, Ramalingaswami Fellow, Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology; All India Rank: 1182 in Analytical Chemistry; Dr. Atiqur Rahman, Dept. of Geography, All India Rank: 1219 in Geological & Geomatics Engineering; Dr. Abid Haleem, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, All India Rank: 1422 in Business & Management; Dr. Arun Kumar, Dept. of Physics, All India Rank: 1540 in Energy; Prof. Tokeer Ahmad, Dept. of Chemistry: All India Rank: 1687 in Materials; and Dr. Md. Imtaiyaz Hassan, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences; All India Rank: 1746 in Biophysics.
The historic institution also won Boston University’s Global Programs BUFI (2020) Seed Fund award for collaborative research proposal entitled ‘Networks and Global Health: Experimental Evidence of Women’s Social Networks, Reproductive Health, and Well-being in Rural India’.
Jamia also published 911 papers in journals that are indexed in a globally accepted SCOPUS database. For the year, 2019, until April 20, we have already published 317 papers and expected to cross 1000 papers per year which will enable us to achieve a per capita publication of over 1.40, Jamia media coordinator, Ahmad Azeem told Radiance.
Out of the 8081 documents published by the faculty of JMI, the publication in the area of life sciences is 13.3%, Chemistry 14.5%, Physics and Materials Sciences 22.6%, Engineering and Technology 17.8%, Compute Science 8%, Social Sciences 3.5%, Arts and Humanities 2%, Interdisciplinary/ multidisciplinary 20% of the total articles published.
In recent years Jamia has made significant strides. It got NAAC Accreditation with Grade ‘A’ in March 2015. The MHRD’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) placed it at the 19th position in the “Overall Ranking” for 2018 & 2019. In the Time Higher Education (THE) ranking for the year 2019, 2020 Jamia was placed in-between 601-800 and in the QS World University Rankings 2020 it was placed in-between 751-800. Round University Ranking in collaboration with Clarivate Analytics has ranked JMI at 538 among 1100 universities participating in world university ranking 2020.
Jamia Hamdard, founded by noted philanthropist Hakeem Abdul Hameed (1908-1999) in 1989, is also recording excellence in research. Dr. Mairaj Ahmed Ansari, an immunologist and molecular virologist by training, Jamia Hamdard, has been awarded the Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellowship for five years. The Fellowship recognises outstanding young scientists in the biomedical and health sciences who wish to establish a high-quality innovative research programme in India.
As a result of the conducive research ecosystem developed in the last three decades, Jamia Hamdard has performed excellently in science. Researchers of the institution have been recognised globally for their research achievements.
Stanford University of the USA has included five researchers of Jamia Hamdard in 2% top ranked scientists. It includes Prof. Ahmed Kamal who is serving as the Pro Vice Chancellor after retiring from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad in the field of Medicinal & Biomolecular Chemistry, Prof. S. Raisuddin in the field of Toxicology, Prof. Ranjit Biswas and Dr Mohd Nazam Ansari in the field Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing, Prof. Javed Ali in the field of Pharmacy & Pharmacology.
Prof. Raisuddin, head of Research Division, told Radiance that while comparing with other universities having ‘minority’ tags such as AMU and JMI, the performance of Jamia Hamdard is quite spectacular as it is a young university, has limited government support and the number of faculty is low. There are 8 and 4 teachers from AMU and JMI respectively in the said-list. Primarily based on research output Jamia Hamdard is in the top 25 universities among more than 900 Indian universities in the recently released ranking conducted by the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2020. It is number 1 in the field of Pharmacy for the last two years and in the medicine field it is in the top 25.
Jamia Hamdard has also been ranked for the first time by the reputed Time Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking 2021 in the rank of 801-1000. It is among only 63 Indian universities given rank by THE World University Ranking. In THE Subject Ranking 2021 in the subject of Life Sciences it got a rank of 401–500 and in the subject of Clinical and Health it ranked at 501–600. In India Jamia Hamdard is number 2 in the subject of Life Sciences and number 3 in the subject of Clinical and Health. Furthermore, in QS Subject ranking in the subject of Pharmacy and Pharmacology Jamia Hamdard has been ranked globally in the rank of 150-200 in the year 2020. Jamia Hamdard is moving forward to make its mark in the global research scene.
This array of scientific achievements shows that these institutions are on the path of reviving the golden period of Muslim contribution to the development of science, mathematics and medicine which had laid the foundation for the European renaissance.