Dr Firdausi Qadri, a Bangladeshi scientist won the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2021, which is known as Asia’s Nobel Prize. Dr Firdausi has been honored with this prestigious award due to her magnificent contribution to infectious disease control, immunology, vaccine development, and clinical trials. This article will present a brief about Dr Firdausi Qadri, her journey as a researcher, and her achievement of the Ramon Magsaysay Award. Who is Dr Firdausi Qadri? Emeritus Scientist for infectious diseases Dr Firdausi Qadri was born on March 31, 1951. She obtained her BSc in 1975 and MSc in 1977 from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka. Later she received her Ph.D. in 1980 from the Department of Biochemistry/ Immunology, University of Liverpool, UK. After completing post-doctoral research from International Centre For Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh’s (icddr,b) Department of Immunology, she joined the same institute in 1988 as an associate scientist. Firdausi was later appointed as a senior scientist and head of the Department of Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology at the same institution. Currently, Firdausi Qadri is working as Emeritus Scientist at icddr,b. Read Dr Qadri wins Magsaysay Award for developing life-saving vaccines In the early years of her career, this Bangladeshi scientist has been working on research related to medicine. She played a leading role in specializing in such research activities. Firdausi has worked on the cholera vaccine development for about 25 years. She also specializes in ETEC, typhoid, Helicobacter pylori, rotavirus, and other infectious diseases. Qadri has an important contribution to the development of the typhoid vaccine for children and the elderly. Besides these, she contributed to the development of a remedy for this disease for 9-month-old newborns. Honors and rewards In 2008, Firdausi was awarded the Gold Medal of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. In 2002, she won the Christophe Merieux Prize for her research on infectious intestinal diseases in developing countries. In 2013, she received the annual C. N. R. Rao award from the world academy of sciences for her advancements in science in developing countries. READ: Dr Firdausi Qadri’s Magsaysay: Fitting recognition for a pioneering life’s work In 2014, Dr. Firdausi Qadri was appointed as a consultant to a high-level panel to make the UN-proposed technology bank and the systems supporting science and innovation more efficient organizationally. She was the first person in South Asia to receive a Grand Prize from the Christoph and Rudolph Foundation. In 2012, icddr,b recognized Qadri as the best female employee of the year. She received the L'Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Award (Asia-Pacific Region) in 2020 for her significant contribution to the identification of infectious diseases in developing countries and the prevention of their spread worldwide. In 2013, Qadri received Ananya's top 10 awards. Further, in 2021, Asian Scientist Magazines, a Singapore-based science magazine included her in the list of the 100 best scientists in Asia. Ferdousi is also a member of the Academy of Sciences of Bangladesh and the International Ambassador of Bangladesh American Society for Microbiology. Read Safwan Sobhan receives AsiaOne Magazine's 'Asia's Greatest Leader' award

Bangladeshi scientist Dr Firdausi Qadri has been conferred with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2021, in recognition of her groundbreaking work in “developing vaccines that have saved millions of lives”.   The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation’s board of trustees cited “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.” Read: Dr Firdausi Qadri: Ramon Magsaysay 2021 Award Winner Bangladeshi Scientist It caps a year in Dr Qadri’s life that saw her life’s work finally receiving the recognition it merits, within the general atmosphere in which scientists – particularly those in the field of life sciences – are being more valued for the invaluable work they do since the onset of the global pandemic.   Dr Qadri has focused her research on enteric diseases, specifically in the areas of immunology, genomics, proteomic technology and diagnostics, and vaccine development. Perhaps her most important intervention will remain the introduction of a new cheap oral cholera vaccine in Bangladesh, as an alternative to Dukoral, which is costly for poor people and cost-ineffective as a public health tool.   In October 2020, Bill Gates described her as a hero for her work in developing the new cheap cholera vaccine, which was done in partnership with the Gates Foundation: “In 2011, Dr. Qadri and her team at the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease and Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) led a feasibility study on a newer, more affordable oral cholera vaccine, Shanchol. The study, which was done in partnership with our foundation, showed that the inexpensive vaccine could be an effective tool in stopping the spread of cholera in poor, urban environments, giving people more than 50 percent protection against the disease,” Gates wrote. He went on to write that it helped lead to “a complete change in thinking about how the world could tackle the challenge of cholera.”   “You can have very good water, sanitation, education, good homes and people won’t have cholera. But until that happens, you need to stop the misery. You need to control the disease,” Dr. Qadri was quoted as saying in the piece by Gates, which appeared on his Gates Notes blog. “And the vaccine is a one-stop solution.” Read:Dr Qadri wins Magsaysay Award for developing life-saving vaccines In 2012, Qadri was awarded the Fondation Christophe et Rodolphe Mérieux's annual scientific 'Grand Prize', called the "Christophe Mérieux Prize", for her research on infectious enteric diseases In 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) helped to create an oral cholera vaccine stockpile, to contain and prevent outbreaks. Since then, more than 60 million doses have been shipped worldwide. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is supporting countries to use the cholera vaccine to target cholera “hotspots”—areas at highest risk—to prevent outbreaks before they happen, according to Gates.   The UN has previously noted not only Dr Qadri’s own work, but also how a large part of her career has been focused on developing leaders in the field of infectious disease research from different disciplines and institutions. She has inspired many young scientists through her teaching and research activities.   “Her penchant for mentoring can be seen in her lab and field sites where aspiring fellows from both local and international universities, join her team as interns and later move on to faculty positions globally,” the organisation’s High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and the Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) wrote in a profile of her.   The arrival in 2017 of nearly one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar into overcrowded camps in Bangladesh raised serious concerns about a cholera epidemic. Working with the government, Dr. Qadri led a vaccination program that has helped prevent an outbreak, through a program that vaccinated 700,000 of the distressed refugees.   “If this vaccination was not carried out, there would be chaotic conditions,” Dr. Qadri said of the campaign. “We were able to prevent a major, major epidemic and deaths.” She was also 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”. Read:BINA and scientist Dr Shamsun Nahar receive prestigious IAEA awards And earlier this year, Dr Qadri was one of three Bangladeshis – all women – who were named by Asian Scientist magazine in their list of the “best and brightest 100 Asian scientists.” The Magsaysay is by far the most prestigious of the awards she has received, but it is only fitting for someone whose work is making it possible to believe in a world where the “world’s longest-running pandemic,” caused by cholera, can be defeated.