Abstract
This is informed with profound sadness that Prof. Dr. M. Nizamuddin, an internationally renowned phycologist
and pioneer in marine algal studies in Pakistan, breathed his last on January 16, 2011 at his son-in law Dr. Irfan’s
house in Karachi, Pakistan. He was buried the same day in a graveyard located in Sector 11, North Karachi. His
death came as a shock to many of his relatives, friends, students and others. He was 80. May Allah, the most
Merciful and the most Beneficent, rest his soul in peace and bestow blessings and forgiveness on him and also give
patience to the bereaved family and his admirers. He was suffering from multiple protracted ailments for several
years before his death and was able to walk only with the help of a walker. He is survived by two sons, M.
Ezamudin and M. Arif and two daughters, Tafakur Anjum and Durr –e- Nayab. His wife died earlier, some ten years
ago.
He was born on January 1, 1930 in Bihar, India where he also received his school and college education. Later
he migrated to Pakistan and got his M.Sc. degree in Botany from University of Karachi in 1954. He then went to
Australia to pursue his studies on brown algae under the guidance of the eminent phycologist Prof. Dr. H.B.S.
Womersley and qualified his Ph. D. degree in 1961 from the University of Adelaide. He then returned to University
of Karachi and taught at the Department of Botany until 1970 and established research on the marine algae of
Pakistan along with his students. Later, he moved to Al Faateh University of Tripoli, Libya where he served from
1970 to 1991 and carried out classical studies on Mediterranean algae of the region. Afterwards he remained at
Karachi until his death and devoted himself to research on algae at Department of Botany University of Karachi
without having any position in or assistance from the University.
Prof. Dr. M. Nizamuddin was a dedicated scientist who devoted himself to research until his death without
caring about positions and status. He was an ardent prolific research worker and was actively involved in research
until a few weeks before his death. Prof. Dr. Andrew Campbell of Queen Mary University, London considers him ‘a
remarkable worker’ (pers.com.). His latest paper was published as recently as 2009. During the last few years his
health deteriorated and so did his eyesight but he did not give up and continued to research. Ms Sadaf Gul, lecturer
in Botany often helped him in reading and writing the research articles. He published more than a hundred papers
many of which appeared in the best international journals of repute including ‘Nature” which is one of the highest
impact factor journals in the world. His work on the order Fucales of brown algae may be regarded as a classic, but
his works on other groups of algae are no less important. He also wrote several books and monographs some of
which are mentioned below for the interested readers.
