Maqsudul Alam (14 December 1954 – 20 December 2014) was a Bangladeshi-born life-science scientist who is known for his work on genome sequencing. His work on genome sequencing started with bacteria Idiomarina loihiensis in 2003. He came into the focus of Bangladeshi people after his work on genome sequencing of jute species and jute attacking fungus. Early life Alam was born in Madaripur, Faridpur, East Pakistan. His parents were Dalil Uddin Ahmed, a martyr of the 1971 Liberation War and an official of East Pakistan Rifles; and Lyrian Ahmed, a teacher, and social worker. Personal life Alam married Irina Anatolievna during his stay in Russia. Alam was a Ph.D. student and Anatolievna was a medical student at that time. The couple had one daughter named Liliana Maqsudulovna Alam (1986-2019). In 1992, the family moved to United States. The couple was divorced in 1997. Alam later married Rafia Hasina in 2009. Education Alam completed secondary and higher secondary education from Government Laboratory High School and Dhaka College, respectively. He completed his master's degree in microbiology from Moscow State University in 1979; and earned his first Ph.D. degree in microbiology from the same university in 1982. He earned his second Ph.D. in biochemistry from Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in 1987. Academic career From 1988 to 1990, Alam was a senior research scientist at Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences. Then he was a visiting scientist of department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Washington State University from 1990 to 1992. Alam was an assistant director of Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center (MarBEC) at University of Hawaii. In 1992, Alam joined the department of Microbiology at University of Hawaii, Manoa as an assistant professor. In 1997, he was promoted to associate professor. Alam became full professor in 2001, a position which he held until his death. He was also the Director of Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics at University of Hawaii, Manoa from 2003 until his death. Alam was the director of Centre for Chemical Biology at Universiti Sains Malaysia from 2009 to 2012. In 2011, Alam became a member of advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Sylhet. Scientific career In 2003, Alam set up the Advanced Studies in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics (ASGPB) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Consolidating the DNA sequencing framework of ASGPB with the bioinformatic assets at the Maui