Qudsia Tahseen (born 15 December 1964) is a Professor of Zoology at

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

and teaches

Animal Ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their biophysical environment, physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosy ...

as well as

Nematology Nematology is the scientific discipline concerned with the study of nematodes, or roundworms. Although nematological investigation dates back to the days of Aristotle or even earlier, nematology as an independent discipline has its recognizable ...

to the students of the Masters programme. Her areas of research include

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

and

developmental biology Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of Regeneration (biology), regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and di ...

of terrestrial and aquatic nematodes. Her thrust areas are Biodiversity, Taxonomy, Ecology and developmental biology of soil and fresh water nematodes. She is a fellow of two national science academies of India.

Education

Qudsia Tahseen's schooling was from

Azamgarh Azamgarh is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Azamgarh division, which consists of Ballia, Mau and Azamgarh districts. Azamgarh is situated on the bank of Tamsa River (Tons). It is located east of the st ...

. From there, she moved on to pursue higher education in Zoology from

. She completed her M.Sc. in Zoology in the year 1984 and was awarded a Gold Medal. She also pursued Diploma in Statistics. She joined research in the Department of Zoology and completed her M.Phil in 1987 and Ph.D in 1989.

Career

Qudsia Tahseen's first appointment as a faculty was in 1989 in

Women's College Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male stud ...

AMU even before she had received the PhD degree. In 1997, she got transferred to the Department of Zoology,

first serving as a Reader and then a full Professor.

Research

She has been carrying out numerous studies on taxonomy,

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

, and biology of soil and aquatic nematodes resulting in discovery and description of several new species of Nematodes from India. Most recently her group discovered an intermediate species between two different genera of

Nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...

s. (referring in turn to Tahseen, Ahlawat, Asif, Mustaqim, 2016) In view of the scarcity of reports on these groups from India, she undertook the challenging task of exploring Indian habitats and made critical observations on the structure and morphology of free-living nematodes using LM and SEM. She has described and revised a good number of nematode taxa and has addressed the taxonomic identification from different perspectives so as to adopt a holistic approach combining morphological, developmental and ecological characteristics for better scientific value instead of the lopsided shallow morphological study. Her lucid and critical analyses of species supplemented with Scanning Electron Microscopic details were commended by peers and her wide taxonomic skills have been accredited internationally as she remains so far the only Asian to receive ONTA Special Award for sustained excellence in Nematology. She has also conducted pioneering studies in India on nematode development while her ecological findings led to the understanding of shifts in subterranean food web. Due to the skills and expertise, she has been invited to labs of Europe and America under fellowships of Royal Society, Rothamsted International, INSA, DBT, TWAS, TWOWS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, European Union Consortium, Australian Academy of Science etc. for collaborative research or to teach/ guide post-graduate students at Erasmus Mundus and EUMAINE programmes.

Awards and honours

Qudsia Tahseen was the first Asian to receive ONTA (Organization of Nematologists of Tropical America) Special Award in 2005 for sustained excellence in

. She has been recognized for her accomplishments in the field with many reputed fellowships including:= *

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...

, Bangalore *Royal Society, Rothamsted International, U.K. *

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

, Department of Biotechnology, India *Third world of Academy of Science, Italy *Rothamsted International Fellow (2003) *ONTA (Organization of Nematologists of Tropical America) Special Award (2005) for world‐wide expertise in taxonomy and sustained excellence in Nematology (First Asian to be honoured) *INSA visiting Scientist (2001) *DBT Overseas Fellow (2006) *Visiting Scholar, TWAS‐CAS (2007‐08) *Erasmus Mundus Scholar (2010‐11) *Work has been regarded as ‘exemplary contribution’ by an eminent German Nematologist (Sudhaus, 2011) in the latest taxonomic revision on Rhabditidae. *Selected under INSA‐DFG Bilateral Exchange Programme to visit Germany (2018) *Funded by Max Planck Institute of developmental biology, Tubingen, Germany to carry out collaborative research for three months (May-Aug, 2018). Her taxonomic skills have been credited in view of the diminishing taxonomists as she has been invited to reputed labs of Europe and America. Her biography has been included in ''“Lilawati’s Daughters ‐ Top Hundred Women Scientists of India”'' Published by Indian Academy of Sciences. and in ''“The Girl’s Guide to a Life in Science”'' By Young Zubaan Publishers (One of the twenty three selected biographies of renowned Indian women scientists to encourage and incite young girls to opt for a science career); Editors: Ram Ramaswamy, Rohini Godbole and Mandakini Dubey (2011) She was also mentioned in the ''“Noted Women Scientists of India – An Attempt at Enumeration”'' in Scilog (Germany) in association with nature.com and in ''Life'', an e‐newsletter on Biological Sciences.

Books and other Publications

Qudsia Tahseen has published a good number of research papers in leading international journals of the field viz.,

, Journal of Nematology,

Hydrobiologia ''Hydrobiologia'', ''The International Journal of Aquatic Sciences'', is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing 21 issues per year, for a total of well over 4000 pages per year. ''Hydrobiologia'' publishes original research, reviews and opi ...

etc. * Ather Hussain and Qudsia Tahseen (2015) Nematodes as Environmental Indicators of Keoladeo National Park. * Rehmat Jehan and Qudsia Tahseen (2018) Diversity of Order Rhabditida in an Indian State

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tahseen, Qudsia Articles created or expanded during Women's History Month (India) - 2014 Living people 20th-century Indian women scientists 1964 births Indian Muslims Indian women biologists People from Azamgarh 20th-century Indian zoologists Aligarh Muslim University alumni Academic staff of Aligarh Muslim University Scientists from Uttar Pradesh Women scientists from Uttar Pradesh