text: Iqbal Hussain Qureshi was born on 27 September 1937 in Ajmer, Rajasthan in India where he received his early education. Following the Partition of India in 1947, his family emigrated to Pakistan and settled in Hyderabad, Sindh, where he matriculated from a public high school. He was a child prodigy, being accepted at the Sindh University in his teenage years to study chemistry. In 1956, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in chemistry from the Sindh University and was noted in newspapers for his top standing in his class, winning the silver medallion with his degree. He continued his studies at the Sindh University, and graduated in 1958 with a Master of Science (MSc) in chemistry with Gold medallion.
  After earning a scholarship from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in 1960, Qureshi went to the United States to attend the University of Michigan and graduated in 1962 with an MSc in nuclear chemistry. He went to Japan for his doctoral studies, attending the University of Tokyo where in 1963 he defended his thesis, "Radiochemical separations by Amalgam exchange", which contained fundamental work on chemical amalgam applications in radiochemistry. In 1994, his biography was written and published by the University of Michigan in American Men & Women of Science: A Biographical Directory of Todays Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences' journal.
  In 1967, Qureshi returned to the United States and briefly worked for the US National Bureau of Standards as a postdoctoral researcher before leaving for Denmark in 1969. In Denmark, he received training in the areas of uranium and plutonium isotope separation, which was vital when he returned to Pakistan in 1971 with his expertise and knowledge.