Qasim Mehdi

Mehdi died peacefully in Lahore on 28 September 2016 after a protracted illness.

His last appointment was serving as the chairman of the Center for Human Genetics at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi, Pakistan, as well as a distinguished visiting professor in the University of Karachi, Karachi Pakistan. In past, he had served as a Distinguished National Professor, Higher Education Commission Pakistan, and director general of the Biomedical & Genetic Engineering Division, Islamabad, at the Institute for Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, University of Karachi, Pakistan. He was a recipient of the Government of Pakistan civil awards, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (1998) and Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the "Crescent of Distinction" (2003) conferred by the president of Pakistan.

He had been a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Sciences, Prime Ministers Cabinet Committee for the Evaluation of Research, Development in Science and Technology in Pakistan, Advanced Studies Board, HEJ Research Inst. of Chemistry, Karachi University, 1993-, The World Bank Committee for Higher Education in Pakistan, elected member, Scientific and Medical Advisory Board, the International Retinitis Pigmentosa Society (Retinitis Pigmentosa International) and The Foundation Fighting Blindness society, Washington DC (1993–present), Human Genome Organization (HUGO), London (UK), founding member, Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) USA. (1994–present), chairman, Southwest Asia Committee and Member International Executive Committee, HGDP and (1997–present), among a number of other professional bodies.

Mehdi was born in Lucknow, India, where he completed his B.S. from the Lucknow University. He received his MS from MIT and then a D.Phil. (doctorate) degree from the Oxford University, where he had mentors like Nobel laureates Sir Hans Krebs and Rodney Porter. His doctoral education was followed by a series of fellowships at the Oxford and the Wellcome Trust, until appointed by the Stanford University as a research associate in 1976 and later a senior research fellow, affiliated with the Stanford University Departments of Chemistry and Radiology and Stanford Cancer Biology Research Labs. He has been fellow of the Wellcome Trust (1972–1974) and the Biochemical Society, UK (1972–1997), other than holding numerous other honors, awards, and fellowships.