Srinagar, July 16: Dr Zaffar Ahmad Handoo was presented the Society of Nematologists Fellow of the Society Award
for his outstanding contributions to Nematology at the 62nd annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists at the awards program held at Columbus, Ohio, USA on July 13.
Dr Zaffar Handoo, is considered one of world’s foremost authorities on nematode-taxonomy. Hailing from Narwara Srinagar completed his Ph.D in 1977 from the University of Kashmir in Zoology . After moving to the United States he served as Staff Research Associate from 1981 to 1988 at the Nematology Lab, USDA-Agricultural Research Centre Beltsville, Maryland.
Dr Handoo holds the position of Research Microbiologist and he has made major contributions to Nematology and Agriculture. He is considered an authority on nematode taxonomy, having published more than 150 peer-reviewed research manuscripts.
He has described more than 60 new nematode species for science. His publication list also includes compendia for 8 genera, and 8 book chapters.
Dr Handoo has also described G.pallida as a first report in the U.S, which has a huge economic impact in potato production. The impact of his publications can be seen in the very high number of citations which are more than 2600. His expertise in nematode morphology and taxonomy has had a worldwide impact and a tremendous and uncalculated value for the protection of US agriculture. He has earlier been awarded for excellence, outstanding research and identification of insects, mites, fungi and nematodes provided to protect United States agriculture from invasive pests and in support of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.