Syed Hedayetullah

Syed Hedayetullah (1904 – 29 August 1973) is considered a main architect of agriculture in Bangladesh. He was a founding fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, founder principal of Agriculture College, Dhaka (1944–49), and member of the founding committee of the Botanical Society of Bengal. He is credited with establishing modern Bangladeshi agriculture and food self-sufficiency, having developed 60 superior strains of rice.

Hedayetullah took great interest in religious and social work as well. He was instrumental in the reconstruction of the Amber Shah Mosque at Karwanbazar, Dhaka, development of which has subsequently been taken up by the Bangladesh Government.

Biography Hedayetullah was born in the Bogra District, Bengal Presidency, British India (now Bangladesh) in 1904. He passed the entrance examination from Maldah Zilla School (now in West Bengal, India) in 1920. He studied at the Presidency College, Calcutta, as a resident of Baker Hostel and secured BSc (Honors) degree in 1926 and MSc degree in 1928 from the Calcutta University in botany. He was offered a state scholarship from the Government of India to study at King's College London from 1929 to 1932. He conducted studies on the cytology and cytogenetics of the Narcissus species and received his PhD degree from University of London in 1932.

Hedayetullah joined Science College, Calcutta, as a senior lecturer in botany in 1933, but left to join the position of Economic Botanist, Government of Bengal in 1935. In 1945 he succeeded G. W. Podwick as the principal of Dhaka Agricultural College (now Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University). In 1949, he was appointed Director of Agriculture, Government of East Pakistan (Bangladesh). He was a liaison officer, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Pakistan from 1956 to 1958. After he retired from government service in 1958 he was appointed head of research division at the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Laboratories (now called science laboratory) Dhaka and continued in that position until 1964. From 1964 to 1968, he was a scientific advisor to the Pakistan Jute Mills Association.

Death Hedayetullah died in Dhaka on 29 August 1973, aged 68 or 69. His daughter, Salima Zahiruddin, married architect Shah Alam Zahiruddin.

Notable publications