Our Correspondent /
India’s renowned scientist and leader of India’s first expedition to the Antarctica, Padma Bhushan Prof. Syed Zahoor Qasim, passed away in New Delhi on Tuesday Oct 20. He was 92. He was born on December 31, 1926 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh,
Prof. Qasim, who first made way to the frozen continent Antarctica in 1981-82, and successfully organized and guided the next the seven expeditions, pioneered in Fisheries Biology, mari-culture, estuarine ecology, environmental pollution and Antarctic research will always be quoted profusely for his more than 200 original research papers published in national and international journals. For his original work and distinguished services, he won many honors and awards including Padma Bhushan in 1982.
He was a Member of the Planning Commission of India from 1991 to 1996. He is an Honorary Professor of universities including Aligarh Muslim University, Madurai Kamaraj University, Anna Malai University, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and Jamia Millia Islamia.
A bacterial strain isolated from a marine sediment sample collected at a depth of 200 m from Kongsfjorden, Svalbard was named in honour of Professor S. Z. Qasim, the founder of polar biology in India as “Cyclobacterium qasimii”.
Prof. Qasim was a prominent alumnus of the Aligarh Muslim University having completed his B.Sc. in 
1949 and M.Sc. (Zoology) in 1951 with first position at AMU. After completing his M.Sc., he was appointed as lecturer in the department of Zoology in 1951 and promoted as Reader in 1957.
Calling the sad demise of Prof. Qasim an irreparable loss, AMU Vice Chancellor, Lt. Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah has expressed heartfelt condolences to his family. He said that Prof. Zahoor Qasim was a distinguished alumnus who established a new laboratory of fisheries in the Department of Zoology.
The Aligarh Muslim University awarded Prof. Qasim with the Sir Syed Ahmad Khan International Award for Life Sciences in 2009, jointly with another distinguished scientist and an alumnus, Prof. Obaid Ahmad Siddiqui. Prof. Qasim, however, donated the award money, Rs. 3 Lakh to the University for instituting an academic award and scholarship for deserving science graduates of AMU.