Professor Dr. Mohammad Al-Forkan (Vice-Chancellor)

I am Dr. Mohammad Al-Forkan, Professor and Founder Chairman of the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (GEB) at the University of Chittagong (CU). I completed my BSc (Hons.) and MS degrees from the Dept. of Botany, University of Chittagong with first class and shortly after joined as a Lecturer in 1993 at the Dept. of Botany. Gradually I was promoted as a Professor in 2006. I was awarded PhD from Nottingham University in the UK after completing my research on genetic engineering of Indica rice. I completed my post-doctoral research on quality improvement of oilseeds at University of Alberta and Agricultural Research Council in Canada. I was a visiting Professor and research scholar at University of California, Davis in the USA. I received prestigious IDB scholarship for my PhD and Post-Doctoral research. In 2004, I founded the Dept. of GEB which is now considered one of the best departments in Bangladesh contributing to science and technology and nurturing students that are becoming gemstone workforce of scientific and administrative sectors at home and abroad. I kept myself dedicated behind the department till now to develop it as a pinnacle of scientific studies and research in Bangladesh. As a part of my dedication, I established Functional Genomics and Proteomics Laboratories (FGPL) and an automatic climate-controlled Greenhouse with independent full facilities for highly sophisticated research. FGPL is now so highly equipped with state-of-the-art instruments including DNA sequencer, RT-PCR, Gene Pulser and so on that any kind of laboratory experiments for research works on biological sciences encompassing plant tissue culture and genetic engineering; stress effects of climate change; proteomics; genomic and transcriptomic analysis of human and other diseases; microbiological and bioinformatic analyses. During coronavirus pandemic in 2019-2022, I played role as a coordinator for covid-19 detection and dedicated my lab instruments and research students for the cause of testing more than hundred thousand samples. In my 31-year teaching and research carrier, I have 51 research publications (h-index-12, i-10 index- 16, Citations-450), served as editorial board member in internationally reputed journals, as the Editor In-Chief of Journal of Biological Sciences and received more than 50 national and international research grants from reputed funding agencies like USDA, BCCT of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, GARE of Ministry of Education, Special Allocation of Ministry of Science and Technology, Health Science R&D and HPNSDP of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As a research mentor, I supervised 39 students for MS thesis research, seven M.Phil researchers, one post-doctoral researcher and co-supervised many higher research students as collaborative efforts. As an administrator, I played role of chairman of the department, house tutor of hall and hall provost. I also served in many recruitment boards of different universities and administrative committees of CU and played pivotal role to accomplish corresponding duties. My lifelong goal is to be a part of science and technological revolution of new world in Bangladesh and be a torchbearer of values, knowledge and education to my students, research fellows and the people of Bangladesh.