Haseena Khan is a

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay. Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

and fellow of

Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Bangladesh Academy of Sciences is an academic forum for Bangladeshi scientists and technologists. Established in 1973, it aims to fulfill the role of promoting research and development of sciences in Bangladesh. History After the partition of ...

. She is known for her lead on decoding Genome of ''Tenualosa ilisha'' from the river Padma. She was awarded Independence Day Award, the highest state award given by the government of Bangladesh for her contribution on research and training. Haseena Khan is also known for her contribution to jute genome decoding under

Maqsudul Alam Maqsudul Alam (14 December 1954 – 20 December 2014) was a Bangladeshi-born life-science scientist who is known for his work on genome sequencing. His work on genome sequencing started with bacteria '' Idiomarina loihiensis'' in 2003. He came in ...

's lead.

Biography

Begum Haseena was born in Gendaria,

Old Dhaka Old Dhaka ( bn, পুরান ঢাকা, Puran Dhaka) is a term used to refer to the historic old city of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It was founded in 1608 as Jahangirabad or Jahangirnagar ( bn, জাহাঙ্গীরনগ� ...

to a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...

family of

Dhakaiya The Old Dhakaites ( bn, পুরান ঢাকাইয়া, Puran Dhakaiya) are an Indo-Aryan ethnocultural group viewed as the ''original'' inhabitants of Dhaka. They are sometimes referred to as simply Dhakaiya. Their history dates bac ...

heritage. Her father, Muhammad Abdul Khaleq, was a government employee whilst her mother, Begum Khodeza Khatun, was a housewife. Haseena was eighth among nine siblings. Two years after birth, the family moved to transferred to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

as her father was serving as an Ambassador there. As a result, she spent her childhood in Kolkata. Haseena Khan is married and mother of one daughter.

Education

Khan started her schooling at a Missionary School, Queen of The Mission in Kolkata. In 1960, her family moved back to

and she enrolled into Saint Xavier School, Lakkhibazar. She finished her

O-level The O-Level (Ordinary Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education. It was introduced in place of the School Certificate in 1951 as part of an educational reform alongside the more in-depth ...

in 1970. Khan passed her HSC from Holy Cross College in 1974 and enrolled in the Department of

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

Dhaka University The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

. She completed her graduation in 1976. In 1985 Khan received her

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

Molecular Biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

from

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Work

Khan started her career as lecturer at Dhaka University in 1982. After completing her PhD in England, she joined Biochemistry Department as an Assistant Professor. She is the head of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department of Dhaka University from 1995. She has also served as chairman of Department of Genetics and Biotechnology from 2001 to 2005. Currently she is working as a fellow at the

. In 2018, Haseena Khan and her team decoded the genome sequence of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

's national fish,

Ilish The ilish (''Tenualosa ilisha'') ( bn, ইলিশ, translit=iliś; also known as the ilishi, hilsa, hilsa herring or hilsa shad, is a species of fish related to the herring, in the family Clupeidae. It is a very popular and sought-after food ...

with the "Tenualosa ilisha Genome Project".

Award and achievements

# UNESCO/ROSTSCA Award for Young Scientist, 1989 #

, M O Ghani Gold Medal, 2011 # For contribution on discover genome sequence of Jute, Kazi Mahbubuddin Gold Award, 2015 # Mani Singh-Farhad Memorial Trust Award, 2016 #

Independence Day Award The Independence Day Award ( bn, স্বাধীনতা পদক), also termed Independence Award ( bn, স্বাধীনতা পুরস্কার), Swadhinata Padak, and Swadhinata Puroskar, is the highest state award given by t ...

, 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Haseena Bangladeshi scientists Living people Bengali scientists University of Dhaka alumni Academic staff of the University of Dhaka People from Dhaka Fellows of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Bangladeshi women academics Year of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Independence Day Award