Muhammad Afzal Husain (10 June 1889 – 1 November 1970) was a

British Indian British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. Currently, the British Indian population exceeds 2 million people in the UK, making them the single largest Ethnic groups in the United Kingdo ...

and later

Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...

entomologist who served briefly as an officiating Imperial Entomologist is considered father of entomology in Pakistan. He was Vice Chancellor of the

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a state university in Kapurthala, Punjab * Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Techn ...

from 1938 to 1960. He was conferred the title

Khan Bahadur Khan Bahadur – a compound of ''Khan'' "Leader" and ''Bahadur'' "Brave" – was an honorary title in British India conferred on Indian subjects who were adherents of Islam or Zoroastrianism. The equivalent title for Hindus, Buddhists and India ...

. Husain was born in a prosperous family from

Batala Batala is the eighth largest city in the state of Punjab, India in terms of population after Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda, Mohali and Hoshiarpur. Batala ranks as the second-oldest city after Bathinda. It is a municipal cor ...

, Gurdaspur District. His father, Husain Baksh, was a Persian and Arabic scholar who worked as a district judge. Husain was a younger half-brother of Sir Fazal-i-Hussain, KCIE. During his early years he moved around Punjab and studied at schools in cities where his father was posted on transfers. He went to the Government College, Lahore with an Alfred Patiala Research Scholarship (1911-1913) before going to

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

for postgraduate studies. He was a Foundation Scholar in 1914, a Bachelor Scholar in 1916, and won the Frank Smart Prize in Zoology for 1916 and the Charles Darwin Prize in 1917. He was especially influenced by J Stanley Gardiner. He was selected as a supernumerary entomologist at the

Imperial Agricultural Research Institute The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), commonly known as the Pusa Institute, is India's national institute for agricultural research, education and extension. The name Pusa Institute is derived from the fact that the institute was o ...

in Pusa in 1918. In 1918 he became entomologist to the Government of Punjab at the Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute, Lyallpur. He worked there until 1930 with a break in 1925 serving as officiating Imperial Entomologist. From December 1930 he was involved in research on locusts. In 1933 he became a principal at the Punjab Agricultural College. In 1938 he became Vice Chancellor of the Punjab University at Lyallpur. At the Silver Jubilee session of the Indian Science Congress in 1938 at Calcutta, he gave a presidential address that examined the history of entomological research in India and its outlook. He had four daughters and a son, Arshad Husain, who was an Ambassador of Pakistan in Moscow.

Research publications

A full list of his publications is provided by his son Hussain in the INSA biography (1994). A selection of writings include: *(1918) Comparative study of the mandibles of Crustacea (won the Charles Darwin Prize, Cambridge). *(1920) Dextro-sinistral reversal, Proc. Indian Sci. Congr. Sect. Zoolo. 7 (3). *(1920) (With Imms, AD) Field Experiments on Chemotropism in insects. Ann. Appl Biol 6, 269–292. *(1920) The Lacinia-mobilis in Crustacea. Proc. Indian. Sci Congr. Sect Zoolo. 7 (3). *(1921) Parthenogenesis in the Braconidae. Proc. Indian Sci. Congr. Sec. Zoolo. 8 (3). *(1925) What steps can be taken to save crops from the depredation of Wild animals? Proc. Board of Agri. India. *(1931) (With Bhalla, HR) Some bird enemies of desert locust. Indian J. Agri. Sci 1:609-619. *(1936) Studies on desert locust n several parts with other authors Indian J. Agri. Sci. 6:168-272, 263–267, 586–590, 591–592. *(1949) A Food Plan for India and Pakistan. Pakistan Times Annual, 47–49. *(1956) Higher Education. Punjab University, Lahore. *(1959) The Master : An analysis based on Master's Examination, 1952. Punjab University, Lahore.

References

External links

Deceased Fellows - INSA
{{Vice-Chancellors of University of the Punjab Vice-chancellors of the University of the Punjab Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Pakistani entomologists