biology

Obaid Siddiqi

Obaid Siddiqi is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Obaid Siddiqi rather than just read about it. In short: Obaid Siddiqi FRS (7 January 1932 – 26 July 2013) was an Indian National Research Professor and the Founder-Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) National Center for Biological Sciences. He made seminal contributions to the field of behavioural neurogenetics using the genetics and neurobiology of Drosophila.

Key takeaways

Obaid Siddiqi belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Obaid Siddiqi to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Obaid Siddiqi from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Obaid Siddiqi FRS (7 January 1932 – 26 July 2013) was an Indian National Research Professor and the Founder-Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) National Center for Biological Sciences. He made seminal contributions to the field of behavioural neurogenetics using the genetics and neurobiology of Drosophila.

Early life and education Obaid Siddiqi was born in 1932 in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh. He received his early education at Aligarh Muslim University where he completed his MSc He completed his PhD at the University of Glasgow, under the supervision of Guido Pontecorvo. He carried out his post doctoral research at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and University of Pennsylvania. He was invited by Homi Bhabha to set up the molecular biology unit at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Bombay in 1962. Thirty years later, he became the founding director of the TIFR National Center for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, where he would continue his research into his final days of life.

Research Siddiqi's studies in the field of neurogenetics unravelled the link between genes, behaviour and the brain. In the 1970s, his work with Seymour Benzer at Caltech led to the discovery of temperature-sensitive paralytic Drosophila mutants and the generation and transmission of neural signals. This heralded the dawn of the field of neurogenetics. At TIFR, Siddiqi and his graduate student, Veronica Rodrigues, isolated and characterized the first collection of mutants with defects in smell and taste in Drosophila. Siddiqi's work in neurogenetics led to the foundational advances in understanding how taste and smell are detected and encoded in the brain.

Awards and honours

President of the Indian Academy of Sciences Member, Royal Society, London Member, US National Academy of Sciences, Washington Member, Third World Academy, Trieste Visiting professorships at Yale University Visiting Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Visiting Professor, The California Institute of Technology Visiting Professor, Cambridge University Twice Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar at Caltech Sir Syed Ahmad Khan International Award for Life Sciences 2009 Padma Vibhushan, 2006 Dr. B. C. Roy Award, 2004 Sir Syed Life Time Achievement Award, AMUAA New York, 2004 Pride of India Award, AFMI, USA, 2004 INSA Aryabhata Medal 1992; Goyal Prize 1991; Birla Smarak Kosh National Award 1989; Padma Bhushan 1984; Bhatnagar Award 1976; Life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Honorary D.Sc., Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh Honorary D.Sc., Banaras Hindu University, Benaras Honorary D.Sc., Jamia Hamdard, Delhi Honorary D.Sc., Kalyani University, Kalyani Honorary D.Sc., Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Honorary D.Sc., Jamia Milia, Delhi Honorary D.Sc., Central University of Hyderabad

Death Siddiqi died on 26 July 2013 in Bangalore following a freak road accident on 21 July 2013 which caused severe damage to the brain. He is survived by his wife Asiya, sons Imran and Kaleem, and daughters Yumna and Diba.

Selected publications

References

External links Obaid Siddiqi's publications on PubMed

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Obaid Siddiqi

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Obaid Siddiqi claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Obaid Siddiqi before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Obaid Siddiqi ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Obaid Siddiqi

In research: Obaid Siddiqi appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Obaid Siddiqi in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Obaid Siddiqi is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1932 births, 2013 deaths, 20th-century Indian biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Obaid Siddiqi outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Obaid Siddiqi in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Obaid Siddiqi means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Obaid Siddiqi out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Obaid Siddiqi in simple terms?

Why does Obaid Siddiqi matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Obaid Siddiqi?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Obaid Siddiqi.