Azra Quraishi (22 September 1945 – 22 November 2002) was a leading

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. She worked on the improvement of

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

production in Pakistan and became known for her work on

tissue culture Tissue culture is the growth of tissues or cells in an artificial medium separate from the parent organism. This technique is also called micropropagation. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid growth medium, su ...

. She was given the

Borlaug Award The Borlaug Award is an award recognition conferred by a fertilizer company, Coromandel International, for outstanding Indian scientists for their research and contributions in the field of agriculture and environment. The award was created in 1 ...

in 1997 and the

Ordre des Palmes académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

in 2002. She is credited with raising potato production in Pakistan by 5%.

Early life and education

Quraishi was born in 1945 in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

, India, to Abdus Sattar Quraishi and Salma Quraishi. Her family moved to Rawalpindi in Pakistan in the upheaval caused by the British orchestrated "

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

". She obtained her first degree from Gordon College in her home city and, in 1966, she obtained her master's degree from the

University of the Punjab The University of the Punjab (Urdu, pnb, ), also referred to as Punjab University, is a public, research, coeducational higher education institution located in Lahore, Pakistan. Punjab University is the oldest public university in Pakistan. ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

. After lecturing for several years at Viqar-un-Nisa Girls College in Rawalpindi, Quraishi traveled overseas on a Government of Pakistan

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

. As a result, she obtained a master's degree in 1973 for her

research on ''

Solanum tuberosum The potato is a starch#Food, starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial plant, perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be fo ...

var., BF-15''. Within three years she had obtained her doctorate from the

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (French: ''Université Paris-Sud''), also known as University of Paris — XI (or as Université d'Orsay before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, in ...

Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...

, France for related work which was a "Study of callogenesis and

organogenesis Organogenesis is the phase of embryonic development that starts at the end of gastrulation and continues until birth. During organogenesis, the three germ layers formed from gastrulation (the ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm) form the internal orga ...

from explant of in vitro shoots in

var., BF-15".

Scientific career

Azra Quraishi created virus-free seed potatoes in Pakistan. This research affected her country's trading position as it reduced the need to import seed potatoes from the

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as she had increased Pakistan's annual potato production by 5%. This contribution brought her national recognition. Azra Quraishi also "successfully launched projects of micropropagation of banana, date palm, and screening salt tolerance through tissue culture in local wheat and rice cultivars." She had published more than 140 research papers.

Awards and recognition

Her contributions earned Azra Quraishi many awards: *

Hamdard Pakistan Hamdard Pakistan, () is a Pakistani unani medicine company which is based in Karachi, Pakistan. It was established by Hakim Said as Hamdard Laboratories (Waqf) in 1948. History Hakim Abdul Majeed (1883 – 1922) founded an organization ca ...

Award in 1992 * Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application in 1997 *

Pakistan Agricultural Research Council The Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) () is based in Islamabad, Pakistan. Mission and achievements It works in collaboration with Ministry of National Food Security and Research which is headed by a Federal Minister, Tariq Bashir Ch ...

(PARC/PARSA) Millenium Award for Best Scientist in 2001 * France's

in 2002 At a memorial ceremony in Islamabad on 26 November 2002, Badruddin Soomro, Chairman PARC, announced that the Institute of Agriculture Biotechnology and Genetics Research (IABGR) would be renamed in Quraishi's honour. Soomro acknowledged that the

glass ceiling A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.Federal Glass Ceiling Commission''Solid Investments: Making Full ...

had prevented Quraishi from the promotion she deserved. She had been promoted to be the Chief Scientific Officer and Deputy Director General, Agriculture Biotechnology Institute, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC). Quraishi had no children but she contributed towards her nephew and the financial costs of dozens of poor children. Azra Quraishi was a member of several societies including the Pakistan Botanical Society.

Publications

Quraishi published over 140 scientific research papers in internationally recognized scientific journals and 85 popular science articles. Quraishi participated in over 70 national and international conferences, symposia or seminars in Pakistan, India, Canada, Egypt, Philippine, USA, UK, India, Jordan, Bangladesh, and, in the month before her death, China.

Death

Azra Quraishi died on 22 November 2002 at age 57.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quraishi, Azra Pakistani scholars Pakistani women scientists 1945 births 2002 deaths Pakistani people of Rajasthani descent Government Gordon College alumni Chevaliers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques Pakistani botanists