Vinod C Shah did his BSc (1952) and MSc (1954) degrees from MS University of Baroda and received the Chancellor’s Gold Medal for standing first in MSc. He obtained MS (Zoology) (1957) from the University of Minnesota, USA and PhD (1961) from Columbia University, New York under the supervision of Professor J Herbert Taylor. He also received DSc (hc) from Arizona. He worked at Brookhaven Laboratory, Long Island (1961-62) and Tufts University, Boston (1962-64). He was Reader, Zoology Department, Delhi University (1964-70); Professor and Head, Zoology Department (1970-88) and Director, School of Sciences (1977- 88), Gujarat University; and Vice Chancellor, Bhavnagar University (1988-90) and MS University of Baroda (1990-93).

Academic and Research Achievements: Shah studied various aspects in the field of cell biology, cytogenetics and genetics. He studied sex chromosomes of animals and humans, and focused on heterochromatin and its replication using autoradiography. He also worked on cell cycle particularly using anti-metabolites. He studied DNA synthesis in isolated chloroplasts of Euglena. His later studies focused on human birth defects using molecular cytogenetic methodology. He has published 185 research papers and also guided 28 students for their PhD. He has authored three books on Radiation Biology, Genetics and Cell Biology.

Other Contributions: Shah played an active role in improving science education particularly in biology in the state of Gujarat. He was appointed as Member, Board of Governors, United States Educational Foundation in India and also worked as Director, Pharmaceutical and Educational Research Development Centre, Ahmedabad. He was on the Editorial boards of several Indian and foreign journals. He served as Secretary and later President of All India Cell Biology Association.

Awards and Honours: Professor Shah was twice awarded the KG Nayak Award (1975-77) for best contributions in Natural Science. He also received Hari Om Mota Award (1975) and Vikram Sarabhai Award (1992) by Gujarat State and National Integration Award (1991). He was elected Vice President of the International Organization of Cell Biology as well as Asia-pacific Organization of Cell Biology. He was twice elected as President of the Gujarat Science Academy.