Dr MA Latif, a renowned molecular plant pathologist, BRRI Gazipur, has been elected as a fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS).
The BAS council in its 4th meeting held on Sunday, endorsed Dr MA Latif as fellow of the academy as per Article 5, said a press release issued on Saturday.
Dr M Latif newly joined as director (A&CS), of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) Gazipur.
He is carrying out fundamental research on molecular plant pathology and has collaborations with eminent researchers from home and abroad.
Over the years of research, he established himself as a leading researcher in the field of molecular plant pathology especially in the development of rice disease-resistant traits through marker-assisted selection, integrated disease management, and nano-technologies, reads the press release.
Dr Latif published 172 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Among them, 127 were published in internationally reputed journals with good impact factors.
As per Google Scholar, the total citation of his articles is 5,090. His Hirsch-index now stands at 28 on Scopus and 41 on Google Scholar. The cumulative impact factors of his research articles are 272.063.
Dr Latif also published two book chapters in the books published by Springer Nature, one in Greenleaf Publishing in association with GSE Research, Brisbane, Australia, and another two in Universiti Putra Malaysia Press and IntechOpen.
For his outstanding research accomplishments, Dr Latif has won the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences-Dr M Innas Ali Memorial Gold Medal Award 2021 in the field of biological sciences.
The Major discoveries of Dr Latif's research include the identification of genes of rice blast, bacterial blight, tungro, brown plant hopper resistance, and fragrance QTLs of rice.
The findings of his basic research have been utilized for the improvement of blast and bacterial blight-resistant rice varieties.
Dr Latif successfully used the identified linked SSRs for marker-assisted selection for the development of rice blast, bacterial blight, and submergence-tolerant rice varieties.
His research activities mainly focus on the development of disease-resistant traits through marker-assisted breeding.
In addition to fundamental research accomplishments, Dr Latif took part actively in the development of 25 rice varieties including the latest Bangabanghu dhan100.
All those varieties are cultivated intensively across the country that have impacted tremendously on the livelihood improvement of the farmers and food security of the nation, reads the press release.
He was awarded as a national science and technology fellow under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Bangladesh.
For his outstanding research performances, he was also awarded as a postdoctoral and a senior research fellow to work at the University Putra Malaysia.
In both programs, he developed bacterial blight and blast resistant advanced lines.
Dr Latif also mentored four post-doctoral fellows in UPM, Malaysia during 2013-14. He contributed significantly to advancing basic and applied research at BRRI particularly the development and fine-tuning of rice production packages for Bangladesh, where he received the outstanding award from the Department for International Development (DFID), UK in 2004.
His findings were published in a top-ranking journal -- Field Crops Research.
He received two silver and three bronze medals due to his research innovation during 2011-2012. For his outstanding performance on rice disease resistance and cold tolerance breeding program, Dr Latif was awarded the Transforming Rice Breeding-BRRI project annual prize in 2017-2019 at BRRI.
He is serving as one of the Editorial Board members of several national and international journals including, academic editor at BioMed Research International, Editor at Genetics and Molecular Research, and associate editor at Bangladesh Rice Journal.
