Sher Ali earned his BSc and MSc degrees from the Aligarh Muslim University, and his PhD degree (1981), from Delhi University working under the supervision of Professor SRV Rao. After working as lecturer at Aligarh Muslim University he joined the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology, Freiburg, Germany as an Alexander Von Humboldt Fellow to work with Professor Jorg Epplen. He moved to the National Medical Center, Duarte, California with Professor Robert Bruce Wallace to continue his research. Subsequently, he also worked with Professor Mark Skolnick, Department of Epidemiology, Salt Lake City, Utah (1991), Professor Martin Dym, Department of Cell Biology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC (1995) and Professor Sir Alec John Jeffreys, Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, Leicester, England, UK (1997). In 1989 he joined the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi as Staff Scientist and Head, Molecular Genetics Division

Academic and Research Achievements: Ali demonstrated gene dosage compensation phenomenon operative in a non-Drosophila system during his doctoral work. From Germany, he published a paper on DNA fingerprinting using synthetic oligonucleotide probe, a novel approach at that time. In USA, he developed a DNA based marker useful for monitoring success of bone marrow transplantation. His notable contributions are the fate of Y-lined genes in Turner patients and somatic microdeletions and copy number polymorphism of the DAZ genes in human males exposed to natural background radiation, identification of an mRNA transcript responsible for fertility failure in rat involving protooncogene c-kit receptor, minisatellite associated sequence amplification (MASA)-based accession of different structural, functional and regulatory genes without screening cDNA library in buffalo. Ali's contribution on the genomics of endangered species such as Indian Swamp deer Cervus duvauceli branderi and Rhinoceros unicornis and fingerprinting of buffalo somatic tissues and spermatozoa have been well received. Ali has guided 10 PhD students and published 69 papers.

Other Contributions: Ali is associated with the International Journal of Human Genetics, and other prestigious journals.

Awards and Honours: Ali was awarded the NK Iyengar Memorial Gold Medal by the Indian Academy of Forensic Sciences, Kolkata in 2000; Zahoor Qasim Gold Medal in 1999 and the Young Muslim Scientist Award in 1996. Sher Ali is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Life Members, Society of Biological Chemists, and Indian Academy of Forensic Sciences, Kolkata.