John Barnabas (1929–1994) was an Indian evolutionary biologist, known for his contributions in the fields of

Molecular Systematics Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

and

Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

. He was a member of the Science Advisory Committee to the cabinet as well as the

Department of Biotechnology The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is an Indian government department, under the Ministry of Science and Technology responsible for administrating development and commercialisation in the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. It ...

of the Government of India. A Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow, Barnabas was also an elected fellow of the

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 ...

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 Acade ...

and the

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...

. The

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ( IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada''), abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the ...

, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1974, for his contributions to biological sciences.

Biography

Born on 12 October 1929 in

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ke ...

, a port city in the south Indian state of

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

, John Barnabas did his early schooling at local schools before graduating in science from the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

. Moving to Mumbai, he obtained his master's degree from

University of Bombay The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

and joined the then newly started Ahmednagar College as a member of faculty in 1954. He also continued his researches and secured a PhD from

University of Pune Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Poona, is a collegiate public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshk ...

in 1956. He served Ahmednagar College till 1981 during which time he held many positions such as that of a lecturer, a professor and a head of the department. In between, he had two stints abroad as a post-doctoral fellow, first at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

(1958–59) and then at

Groningen University The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is the ...

(1960–61). In 1983, Barnabas joined the

National Chemical Laboratory The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) is an Indian government laboratory based in Pune, in western India. Popularly known as NCL, a constituent member of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India, it was established in 1 ...

as a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow and after the tenure of the fellowship in 1985, he continued at the laboratory as the head of the Division of Biochemical Sciences. He worked there holding the Distinguished Fellowship of the

from 1991 till his death on 30 July 1994, at the age of 64.

Legacy

Barnabas was known to have done pioneering research on haemoglobins of mammals, with respect to the sequence of amino acids in them, and his studies helped in a wider understanding of the subject. He proposed novel methods by which the molecular structure is utilized in the measurement of evolutionary distance and the rate of change. His methods, based on

parsimony analysis In phylogenetics, maximum parsimony is an optimality criterion under which the phylogenetic tree that minimizes the total number of character-state changes (or miminizes the cost of differentially weighted character-state changes) is preferred. ...

, assisted in developing

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

trees and helped to understand the evolutionary history of different

eukaryotic Eukaryotes () are organisms whose Cell (biology), cells have a cell nucleus, nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the ...

lineages. His research findings have been documented by way of a book, ''Phylogenetic Perspectives of Protists'', and several articles. Barnabas contributed in the establishment of the department of biochemistry at Ahmednagar College in 1963, when he returned to the college after his post-doctoral stint abroad. He served as the councellor of the International Society for the Study of Origin of Life from 1980 to 1983 and sat in the scientific advisory committees to the cabinet (1983–85) as well as the

(1990–93). He was also associated with the research councils of several scientific agencies including the

and the advisory committee for space sciences of the

Indian Space Research Organization The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...

. He was a member of journals such as ''Biotechnology Letters'', ''Science Technology'', ''Indian Journal of Biochemistry & Biophysics'', ''Journal of Biosciences'' and the journals of the

(INSA) and the

. He also served as a member of the INSA council from 1984 to 1986.

Awards and honors

Barnabas was awarded the

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award in India given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, ...

, one of the highest Indian science awards, by the

in 1974. He received the Sreenivasayya Memorial Award in 1976 and the same year, he was elected by the

as their fellow. Two years later, the

University Grants Commission of India University Grants Commission (UGC) is a statutory body set up by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India in accordance to the UGC Act 1956 and is charged with coordination, determination and maintenanc ...

selected him as a National lecturer and the Indian National Science Academy elected him as their fellow in 1979. In 1983, his project, ''Phylogenetic Systematics Based on Molecular Data sets'', was selected for the

Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship The Jawaharlal Nehru Trust Scholarship U.K. was founded by Admiral Lord Mountbatten of Burma in 1966 as a tribute to the India's first Prime Minister – Jawaharlal Nehru – after his death in 1964. The scholarship was funded by the Nehru M ...

which he completed in 1985 at the

. Barnabas, who was a life member of the ''Society of Biological Chemists, India'', presided the organization during 1985–86. INSA awarded him the Golden Jubilee Commemoration Medal in 1989. He was also a life member of the ''Society for Scientific Values'', a member of the ''Guha Research Conference'', a founder fellow of the ''Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science'' and an elected fellow of the

Institute of Chemical Technology Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) is a state-funded deemed university in Mumbai, India. The institute also has campuses at Bhubaneswar, Odisha and Jalna, Marathwada. It is focused on training and research in the fields of chemical engin ...

(then known as University Department of Chemical Technology) and the

. The many award orations he delivered included ''Vyas Memorial Award Lectureship'' of the Association of Microbiologists of India (1986) and Salim Ali Memorial Lectureship Award of

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute was ...

Notes

References

External links