This time Scientific Bangladesh has talked with A. J. Saleh Ahammad. He is an Associate Professor in the 
Department of Chemistry, Jagannath University. He has shared his experience and insights for the scientific advancement of Bangladesh. Read it, give feedback, and share with people and policy makers.
1.Scientific Bangladesh: Would you like to tell us about your academic and research life? In another way, how would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: I am currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Jagannath University. I received my BSc and MSc from the Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka and obtained PhD in 2011 from Konkuk University, Korea. Then I moved to the Centre for Advanced Research in Sciences (CARS), University of Dhaka, and worked as a Senior Scientist. In 2013, I got a faculty position in the Department of Chemistry, Jagannath University. I did my Postdoctoral Research in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea.
2.Scientific Bangladesh: What has made you a researcher and/or teacher? In another way, what is the story behind your becoming a researcher?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: After finishing my MSc, I joined Beximco Pharmaceuticals as a Production Chemist in Basic Chemical Plants. I was involved in the synthesis of some active raw materials such as Ampicillin, Amoxicillin, Flucloxacillin, etc. At that time, I realized that someone has discovered these active ingredients and described the process and I am following the process i.e. I am doing some routine work, which I felt I should not be doing. I should do some novel work, from which our country will be benefited. This is possible only when I become a researcher. PhD is the basic requirement to be a researcher. Therefore, I started to manage a PhD position in a developed country. Fortunately, I got a scholarship in Korea (the world’s biggest investor in research) for my PhD and it opened the door to become a researcher.
3.Scientific Bangladesh: How do you manage the fund for research? From where you get funds for research?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: We have the opportunity to manage the fund for research from home and abroad. Up to now, I got fund from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, University Grand Commission, Jagannath University Project, and The World Academy of Science (TWAS).
4.Scientific Bangladesh: Do you think Bangladeshi researchers apply enough for international funds?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: I do not think so. To get international funds we need international collaboration, which is difficult with our current infrastructure and research outcomes.
5.Scientific Bangladesh: Inadequate fund for research is a major problem in Bangladesh. What would you say in response to pointing fingers by many to this basic problem worldwide, not only in Bangladesh?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: Yes, the inadequate fund for research is a major problem in Bangladesh. However, the governments total budget for research is increasing day by day, and it increased a lot in the last five years. The problem is the distribution of money among the researchers. In most of the cases, the receiving amount by a researcher is much lower than the amount he demands in the project. Therefore, he needs to modify his proposed project according to the amount of money he receives i.e. he is not doing the work that he actually wants to do. The result becomes less quality of work and published in low impact /non-impact journal. To enhance the good work and quality publications, fund providers may categorize the researchers into several groups. The researcher who did excellent research (based on the quality of the publication) in the last two years can be put in the top category. The researchers who are in the top category may get the exact amount that he demands in the project proposal with some conditions. The fund provider may monitor his work to see whether he successfully finishes his research or not. If he is successful and publishes the results in high impact ISI journals, then he will be considered in the top category and will again receive the fund in the same way. However, if he failed to finish the project successfully then he will not be allowed to apply for a grant for the next three years. In this way, the below category researcher will try to do better research. Overall, quality research and publications will go up.
6.Scientific Bangladesh: What is your research area? What type of research facilities/ infrastructures you have or developed over years and how?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: Currently, I am focusing my research work on the preparation of nanomaterials, carbon materials (from natural sources), and heterometallo-supramolecular polymers. The prepared materials are then used for the fabrication of electrochemical sensors and energy storage devices. I got a faculty position in the Department of Chemistry, Jagannath University in 2013. At that time there were no facilities in my department/university to continue my research work. The main instrument for my research is the “Electrochemical Workstation”, which cost around 16 lac taka. It was impossible to buy this instrument even if I got a grant from Bangladesh. The Ministry of Science and Technology allows a maximum of 10 lac taka and the UGC fund is also of very little amount. Although the Ministry of Education allows a maximum of 30 lac taka, they have restrictions on the use of money. According to their rules, I can use a maximum of 10 lac taka to buy an instrument even if I get 30 lac taka as a research grant. I was worried and frustrated. I had two options, either I would have to stop my research or leave my country. But I never wanted to leave my country (although I had an offer for the faculty position in Korea) and also, I did not want to stop my research. Very fortunately, I got the TWAS (The World Academy of Science) award within one year and they had provided me the main instrument with one condition i.e. I would have to finish the project and publish the results in ISI journal within one year. That was also difficult for me because I had the instrument, but I did not have the chemicals and apparatus to run the project. Then I bought the chemicals and apparatus with my money. I started the TWAS project work with my thesis student Mamun (currently he is a PhD student at Houston University) and finished the project in time and got a publication in the ISI journal (later on, this paper was selected for UGC Gold Medal). In the next several years I got funds from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, UGC, Jagannath University, and very recently from TWAS for the second time. This is how I have made my own small lab in the Department of Chemistry, Jagannath University. I am happy to share that, we have published seven papers in ISI journals from this small lab this year. I would like to give the credit to TWAS for providing me the instrument, my two beloved students Tamanna and Mahedi for their hard work, my friend Dr. Aziz (KFUPM), and my colleague Dr. Delwar for their nice collaboration, and my wife Dr. Solima Khanam for her moral support.
7.Scientific Bangladesh: Tell us about your publications and patent, if any. Tell more about your most loved publication/s and/or patents.
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: I have 42 articles in ISI journals. These journals are published from world reputed publishers like the American Chemical Society (ACS), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Elsevier, Springer, WILEY-VCH and Electrochemical Society (ECS). Moreover, I have two patents, two book chapters, and 55 conference abstracts. My most loved publication is entitled “Poly (brilliant cresyl blue)-reduced graphene oxide modified activated GCE for nitrite detection: analyzing the synergistic interactions through the experimental and computational study”. This paper has been published in the Electrochimica Acta (Publisher: Elsevier; Impact Factor: 6.216), which is one of the top-ranked journals in my research field. This is my most loved journal because this work was completely done in my small lab without any collaboration. All authors are my thesis students. My student Kawsar (6th batch) started this work in 2016. Anju, Akhi, and Sharif were also involved as a helping hand. In 2019, I asked Tamanna & Mahedi (7th batch) to modify this work for a good journal. They did their job nicely and shared the authorship equally with Kawsar. Finally, the paper is published in 2020. It was a four-year-long journey with a great effort from my students. And this is the highest impact factor journal I ever published from Bangladesh.
8.Scientific Bangladesh: Would you like to share your google scholar, LinkedIn, or any other profile?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: I would like to share my google scholar profile. According to Google Scholar, my total citations = 2001, h-index = 20, and i10-index = 24. The google scholar link is given below https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ts_HC_MAAAAJ&hl=en
9.Scientific Bangladesh: Tells us about research grants and awards you have obtained till now.
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: Till now I got research grants from
(i) Ministry of Science & Technology, Bangladesh in the year of 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2019-20.
(ii) Ministry of Education, Bangladesh, in the year of 2019-20.
(iii) University Grants Commission, Bangladesh, in the year of 2019-20.
(iv) Jagannath University Project, in the year of 2017-18.
I obtained the following awards:
(i) Research Grant Award from The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), 2020
(ii) Visiting scholar, King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2020
(iii) UGC Gold Medal Award for excellence research in Physical Sciences, Bangladesh, 2016
(iv) Research Grant Award from The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), 2013
(v) Outstanding Doctoral Research Award for the achievement in PhD, 2011
(vi) Korea Research Foundation Award for the completion of PhD, 2007.
10.Scientific Bangladesh: How important are the experience of working as a journal editor and peer-reviewer? How is your experience in those cases?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: Experience of working as a journal editor and peer-reviewer is very important. A reviewer has the opportunity to comments on others work, which has not published yet. Through this task, he/she is getting an idea, which is helpful for his won research. I am a potential reviewer of some international journals published form the American Chemical Society (ACS), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Elsevier, Springer, WILEY-VCH, and Electrochemical Society (ECS).
11.Scientific Bangladesh: How many researchers (PhDs and Masters) have you developed by this time? In other words, share your supervising story.
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: After finishing my PhD, I joined the Centre for Advanced Research in Sciences (CARS), University of Dhaka, as a Senior Scientist. According to rules, a scientist at CARS has no chance to supervise MSc students directly. However, I got the opportunity to supervise some students as co-supervisor. I was there for about one and a half years. By this time, I have supervised seven MSc students jointly with Prof. Dr. Aftab Ali Shaikh and published four papers in Electrochemical Society Journals. Among them, one paper has been selected for the Dean’s award for excellence research in sciences, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. After joining Jagannath University, I have the opportunity to supervise MSc students directly. Till now, I have supervised ten MSc students in the Department of Chemistry, Jagannath University. Currently, I am supervising one PhD student and two MSc students. In the world ranked universities, one professor can supervise many students. But we don’t have that opportunity although most of our faculties have the ability to supervise many students. According to our university rule, only 20% of MSc students have the opportunity to become thesis students, and that 20% of students will be distributed to faculty through the lottery.
12.Scientific Bangladesh: What 1. qualities and 2. skills you expect in prospective researchers?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: Prospective researchers need dedication, passion, and aspiration. They should not think much about our facilities/ infrastructures. Just start with what you have and give effort as much as you can. I have followed this and got good results. I have started out with thousands of limitations. Fortunately, I got some good students (specially Tamanna and Mahedi) who were talented and hard workers. They worked very hard and made themselves an example for new researchers. Tamanna and Mahedi already have 12 publications in ISI journals (3ACS, 2 RSC, 3 Elsevier, 3 ECS, 1 WILEY-VCH) and 1 book chapter (Elsevier). This type of achievement for MSc students is very rare in the world even at Harvard, MIT, Caltech etc.
13.Scientific Bangladesh: What are the professional organizations of researchers you involved with? How important it is for researchers to join such professional bodies?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: At present, I am involved with four professional organizations: (i) Bangladesh Chemical Society (Life member) (ii) Jagannath University Chemical Society (Life member) (iii) Bangladesh Crystallographic Association (Member) (iv) Bangladesh Nano Society (Founder member) Involvement with professional organizations is very important for any researcher. From this involvement, one researcher can share his ideas with others. It is difficult for us to involve international professional organizations. Because we don’t have a fund for registration. During my doctoral research in Korea, I was involved with some big international organizations such as the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), The Electrochemical Society (ECS), etc. At that time my advisor supported the membership from his project fund. Unfortunately, the Bangladeshi project fund does not support the membership fee.
14.Scientific Bangladesh: Do you think different professional bodies of scientists playing their due role in Bangladesh? What are your suggestions for the leading professional organizations of scientists?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: In my opinion, different professional bodies of scientists are not playing their due role in Bangladesh. Professional organizations of scientists should be led by a real scientist, who has a very strong scientific background. A perfect person can make another perfect person and vice versa.
15.Scientific Bangladesh: How important is leadership ability to become a great researcher? Should researchers take leadership training? Did you ever get training on Leadership?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: Leadership ability is very important to become a great researcher. Leadership training should be at all levels of research. I got leadership training from my PhD advisor. I was the lab manager during my PhD. My responsibility was to manage everything in the lab including guiding junior lab members and maintaining the instruments.
16. Scientific Bangladesh: If asked what will be your three suggestions for the Science Ministry of Bangladesh?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: My three suggestions will be:
(i) The research grant (money) distribution system should be changed. In the current system, a check is distributed among the grant winners through a program. Most of the winners come from outside the Dhaka. Sometimes it is difficult for the winners, especially those who are staying in Sylhet, Chittagong, Patuakhali, Rangpur etc. to join the program. It would be great if the check is directly sent to the winner’s university.
(ii) The report submitting system should be changed. At present, every winner needs to submit a report (hard copy) to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The report should be a published paper based on the project proposal. Therefore, every winner should publish his work in a peer-reviewed journal, which will be considered as a project report. Winners will send this publication with a link to the Science Ministry through email. By this way, fund provider can understand easily who are doing quality work and who are not.
(iii) Every year the Science Ministry can select the top ten projects based on the publication. The principal investigator of the top ten projects may receive an award.
17.Scientific Bangladesh? Would you like to add any more points for our readers?
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: No, thank you.
18.Scientific Bangladesh: Would you want to contribute regularly in Scientific Bangladesh and have a profile as an Author? If yes, then register at https://scientificbangladesh.com/registration-2/
Dr. Saleh Ahammad: Yes, I would like to contribute regularly in Scientific Bangladesh and have a profile as an Author.
