Qudsia Tahseen

Qudsia Tahseen's schooling was from Azamgarh. From there, she moved on to pursue higher education in Zoology from Aligarh Muslim University. She completed her M.Sc. in Zoology in the year 1984 and was awarded a Gold Medal. She also pursued Diploma in Statistics. She joined research in the Department of Zoology and completed her M.Phil in 1987 and Ph.D in 1989.[6]

Qudsia Tahseen's first appointment as a faculty was in 1989 in Women's College AMU even before she had received the PhD degree. In 1997, she got transferred to the Department of Zoology, Aligarh Muslim University first serving as a Reader and then a full Professor.[6]

She has been carrying out numerous studies on taxonomy, biodiversity, and biology of soil and aquatic nematodes resulting in discovery and description of several new species of Nematodes from India.[7][8][9] Most recently her group discovered an intermediate species between two different genera of Nematodes.[7][10] In view of the scarcity of reports on these groups from India, she undertook the challenging task of exploring Indian habitats and made critical observations on the structure and morphology of free-living nematodes using LM and SEM. She has described and revised a good number of nematode taxa and has addressed the taxonomic identification from different perspectives so as to adopt a holistic approach combining morphological, developmental and ecological characteristics for better scientific value instead of the lopsided shallow morphological study. Her lucid and critical analyses of species supplemented with Scanning Electron Microscopic details were commended by peers and her wide taxonomic skills have been accredited internationally as she remains so far the only Asian to receive ONTA Special Award for sustained excellence in Nematology. She has also conducted pioneering studies in India on nematode development while her ecological findings led to the understanding of shifts in subterranean food web. Due to the skills and expertise, she has been invited to reputed labs of Europe and America under prestigious fellowships of Royal Society, Rothamsted International, INSA, DBT, TWAS, TWOWS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, European Union Consortium, Australian Academy of Sciences etc. for collaborative research or to teach/ guide post-graduate students at Erasmus Mundus and EUMAINE programmes.[3]

Qudsia Tahseen was the first Asian to receive ONTA (Organization of Nematologists of Tropical America) Special Award in 2005 for sustained excellence in Nematology. She has been recognized for her accomplishments in the field with many reputed fellowships including:[11]=

• Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore
• Royal Society, Rothamsted International, U.K.
• Indian National Science Academy, Department of Biotechnology, India
• Third world of Academy of Science, Italy
• Rothamsted International Fellow (2003)
• ONTA (Organization of Nematologists of Tropical America) Special Award (2005) for world‐wide expertise in taxonomy and sustained excellence in Nematology (First Asian to be honoured)
• INSA visiting Scientist (2001)
• DBT Overseas Fellow (2006)
• Visiting Scholar, TWAS‐CAS (2007‐08)
• Erasmus Mundus Scholar (2010‐11)  
• Work has been regarded as ‘exemplary contribution’ by an eminent German  Nematologist (Sudhaus, 2011) in the latest taxonomic revision on Rhabditidae.  
• Selected under INSA‐DFG Bilateral Exchange Programme to visit Germany (2018)
• Funded by Max Planck Institute of developmental biology, Tubingen, Germany to carry out collaborative research for three months (May-Aug, 2018).

Her taxonomic skills have been credited in view of the diminishing taxonomists as she has been invited to reputed labs of Europe and America.[1]

Her biography has been included in “Lilawati’s Daughters ‐ Top Hundred Women Scientists of India” Published by Indian Academy of Sciences. and in “The Girl’s Guide to a Life in Science” By Young Zubaan Publishers (One of the twenty three selected biographies of renowned Indian women scientists to encourage and incite young girls to opt for a science career); Editors: Ram Ramaswamy, Rohini Godbole and Mandakini Dubey (2011)

She was also mentioned in the “Noted Women Scientists of India – An Attempt at Enumeration” in Scilog (Germany) in association with nature.com and in Life, an e‐newsletter on Biological Sciences.

Qudsia Tahseen has published a good number of research papers in leading international journals of the field viz., Nematology, Journal of Nematology, Hydrobiologia etc.[11][1]

Ather Hussain and Qudsia Tahseen (2015) Nematodes as Environmental Indicators of Keoladeo National Park. ISBN 978-3-659-67319-1

Blurb of the book: It is a fact that Keoladeo National Park (KNP) has been the focus of many earlier studies and faunal surveys but the nematode faunal diversity has been the aspect virtually neglected in all such work. The second author thus conceived this problem and submitted a proposal to Ministry of Environment and Forests (MEF), New Delhi. The present work has seen the light of the day due to the curious efforts of the second author who volunteered the pioneering study on the nematodes of the KNP. This book brings about a detailed account of the nematodes and their ecological relevance in the wetland’s subterranean food web. Thus the degree of disturbance or the enrichment and the maturity status of the environment have been evaluated using these cost‐effective biological models.

Rehmat Jehan and Qudsia Tahseen (2018) Diversity of Order Rhabditida in an Indian State ISBN 978-613-7-03270-1

Blurb of the book: Diversity is a broad term that refers to morphological variations as well as ecological versatility in the environment. With the technological advancement, the environmental conditions (soil, air and water) are deteriorating day by day due to accumulation of contaminants and pollutants. Therefore, it is necessary to find out the role and response of microorganisms in the soil food web to such changing conditions. Nematodes are such unique organisms that are found in nearly all environments and exhibit many feeding guilds. Their presence in soil pores is an advantageous feature that enables them to detect even minor changes in the concentration of soil chemicals. The present work has been done to study morphological, developmental and ecological diversity in nematodes of Order Rhabditida in an Indian State. The composition of nematode communities in three different habitats in the districts of Western Uttar Pradesh has been studies as indicator of soil health. Since Rhabditida is a diverse group with few species highly tolerant to the disturbances whereas others specifically susceptible, such type of comprehensive study gives a holistic measure of biotic and functional status of soil.