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Bangladeshi scientist Dr Firdausi Qadri has been awarded 'Ramon Magsaysay Award' 2021.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation board of trustees recognises her passion and life-long devotion to the scientific profession; her vision of building the human and physical infrastructure that will benefit the coming generation of Bangladeshi scientists, women scientists in particular, and her untiring contributions to vaccine development, advanced biotechnological therapeutics and critical research that has been saving millions of precious lives.
Two other recipients of the award are- Mohammad Amjad Saqib from Pakistan and Steven Muncy from South-East Asia
Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia's highest honor and is widely regarded as the region's equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Dr Qadri is a senior scientist at the Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology Unit at the Infectious Diseases Division of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).
She decided early on to specialise in medical research. In 1988 joined the International Centre For Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), an international health research institute based in Dhaka. Dr. QADRI focused on communicable diseases, immunology, vaccine development and clinical trials.
Her most challenging engagements came in the fight against cholera and typhoid, major diseases in Bangladesh and Asian and African countries with poor access to safe water, sanitation, education, and medical care. In this, she had a key role in the development of a more affordable oral cholera vaccine (OCV) and the typhoid conjugate vaccine (ViTCV) for adults, children, and even infants as young as nine months.
In 2014, she founded the Institute for Developing Science and Health Initiatives (ideSHi). Dr. QADRI leads ideSHi, which conducts biomedical research and runs training courses and a testing center. It has become a hub of scientific activity by local and visiting scientists in Bangladesh.
In 2020, she was awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award 2020 for her outstanding work in science to prevent infectious diseases affecting children in developing countries and for promoting early diagnosis and vaccination with global health impact.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society.
The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.
Bangladeshi scientist Dr Firdausi Qadri wins ‘Ramon Magsaysay Award’ 2021
She has been instrumental in discovering vaccines that have saved millions of lives
