Wasim Ahmad

Biography

Prof. Wasim Ahmad is an Internationally acclaimed Nematologist with over three decades of research experience in soil nematode fauna of different geographical regions of India and over twenty different countries of the world. He has described several hundred new taxa of nematodes and made detailed Scanning Electron Microscopic observations and molecular characterization of several nematode species. His ecological studies using nematodes as ecological models for food web diagnostic studies in soil ecosystem and the effect of pollutants on the nematode food web is highly appreciated world over. His SEM studies led to the discovery of several hitherto unknown morphological features in nematodes, whereas, the molecular studies using 18s rDNA sequence has given new insight into phylogenetic relationships. He has also contributed significantly to the functional diversity and food web diagnostics of soil inhabiting nematodes in natural forests as well as polluted crop fields. All his work has been published in top Nematology Journals of the world, such as Nematology (The Netherlands), Fundamentals and Applied Nematology (France), Journal of Nematode Morphology & Systematics (Spain), Japanese Journal of Nematology (Japan), International Journal of Nematology (U.K). Journal of Natural History (U.K.), Zootaxa (New Zealand), Jounal of Nematology (USA) etc. His monumental books entitled �??Dorylaimida; Free-living, predaceous and plant parasitic nematodes�?? (1992) and Mononchida: Predaceous Nematodes (2010), both published by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands are unique world-wide reference for study of dorylaim and mononchid nematodes. His other books include �??Plant-parasitic nematodes of India : An Identification Manual�??, a monograph on Alaimina, a book on management of gram pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera), and a recent book entitled Nematodes as bio-indicator of soil ecosystem published from Germany. He has visited many countries as visiting Professor/Scientists on prestigious visiting fellowships from Royal Society (UK), DFG (Germany), JSPS (Japan), Erasmus Mundus Scholar (European Union), CAS (China), KOSEF (Korea), SNU Singapore, INBio Costa Rica and many others. Dr. Ahmad is recipient of E.K. Janaki Ammal National Award on Animal Taxonomy by Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India (2009), the Vigyan Ratan Award of the Uttar Pradesh Department of Science & Technology (2010), S.P. Gupta Gold Medal of Zoological Society of India (2011) and the Recognition award of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India (2012). Recently, he has been elected as Fellow of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc). He is also Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (FNAAS) and a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London (FLS).

Research Interest

morphology, molecular, taxonomy, ecology, phylogenomics