3 Bangladeshi women among top 100 Asian scientists

Three Bangladeshi women scientists have made it to the list of “best and brightest 100 Asian scientists” for their contribution in research, reports news agency UNB.

They are – Firdausi Qadri, researcher and scientist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh's (icddr,b), Salma Sultana, chairperson of Model Livestock Advancement Foundation, and Samia Subrina, professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

They have been included in the sixth edition of the list published by Singapore-based magazine Asian Scientist.

Scientists from China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam have also secured a place in this prestigious list.

Researchers and inventors from across a range of scientific disciplines have been picked based on their role in tackling this year's key challenges, including Covid-19 and climate change, said Asian Scientist.

All of the three Bangladeshi scientists previously received an international award for their leadership and role in effective discovery.

Firdausi, an emeritus scientist at icddr,b, won the L'Oréal-Unesco for Women in Science Award 2020 for her work on understanding and preventing infectious diseases affecting children in developing countries and advocacy for early diagnosis and global vaccination.

Salma, the founder of Model Livestock Advancement Foundation, previously won the “Norman E Borlaug Award 2020” for field research and application by the World Food Prize Foundation for her work with Bangladeshi small-scale farmers – namely her efforts involving veterinary outreach, treatment, and education.

Professor Samia received the “OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award 2020 for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World” for her research on the properties and uses of Nanomaterials.