Mohammad Shamim Jairajpuri obtained his BSc (1959), MSc (1961), PhD (1964) and DSc (1970) degrees in Zoology from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). He was appointed as Lecturer (1964) in Zoology, became Reader (1972), and finally Professor (1983) at AMU. He has served as the youngest Director of the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata (1989-91). He has also served as Chairman, Zoology and Dean, Life Sciences at AMU. He was principal nematologist to the International Institute of Parasitology, St Albans, UK (1981-83).

Academic and Research Achievements: Professor Jairajpuri has done fundamental and applied work in nematology, which is exemplary. His entire research work is on the plant parasitic and soil-inhabiting nematodes. He has worked in some leading laboratories of England, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and America. He has authored about two dozen books and monographs, and published 400 research papers on nematodes in journals of international repute. He has guided 28 MPhil students and 28 students for their PhD degrees.

Other Contributions: Dr Jairajpuri founded the Institute of Agriculture at AMU and a new Central University viz., Maulana Azad National Urdu University (1998-2003) at Hyderabad. He was Chief Editor of the Indian Journal of Nematology (1977-79). Jairajpuri was the President of Nematological Society of India (1979-81) and President, Indian Society for Parasitology (2000-05). He was also the Chairman, Programme Advisory Committee of Zoological/ Botanical Surveys of India (2001-04). He served on the Council of INSA (1995-97).

Awards and Honours: Professor Jairajpuri was awarded the First Janaki Ammal National Award for Taxonomy (1999), Har Swarup Memorial Lecture Award (2000) and Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Visiting Fellowship (2004) both of INSA, D'Souza Memorial Award in Nematology (2006) and Life-time Achievement Award of the Indian Society for Parasitology (2007). He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London (1981), Institute of Biology (1982), UK, Helminthological Society of India, Indian Society for Parasitology, National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad (1990), Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1993), National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi (1993) and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (1999) and Honorary Fellow of the Nematological Society of India. Jairajpuri served as Vice-President, INSA (2001-03).