chemistry

Qasim Mehdi

Qasim Mehdi is a chemistry 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 Qasim Mehdi rather than just read about it. In short: Syed Qasim Mehdi (13 February 1941 – 28 September 2016) was a Pakistani molecular biologist who worked in population genetics. He was a founding member of the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) with prominent role in the initiation of this project at the Stanford University.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Syed Qasim Mehdi (13 February 1941 – 28 September 2016) was a Pakistani molecular biologist who worked in population genetics. He was a founding member of the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) with prominent role in the initiation of this project at the Stanford University.

Biography Mehdi was born in Lucknow, India, where he completed his B.S. from the Lucknow University. He received his MS from MIT and then a D.Phil. (doctorate) degree from the Oxford University, where he had mentors like Nobel laureates Sir Hans Krebs and Rodney Porter. His doctoral education was followed by a series of fellowships at the Oxford and the Wellcome Trust, until appointed by the Stanford University as a research associate in 1976 and later a senior research fellow, affiliated with the Stanford University Departments of Chemistry and Radiology and Stanford Cancer Biology Research Labs. He has been fellow of the Wellcome Trust (1972–1974) and the Biochemical Society, UK (1972–1997), other than holding numerous other honors, awards, and fellowships. His last appointment was serving as the chairman of the Center for Human Genetics at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi, Pakistan, as well as a distinguished visiting professor in the University of Karachi, Karachi Pakistan. In past, he had served as a Distinguished National Professor, Higher Education Commission Pakistan, and director general of the Biomedical & Genetic Engineering Division, Islamabad, at the Institute for Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering, University of Karachi, Pakistan. He was a recipient of the Government of Pakistan civil awards, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (1998) and Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the "Crescent of Distinction" (2003) conferred by the president of Pakistan. He had been a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Sciences, Prime Ministers Cabinet Committee for the Evaluation of Research, Development in Science and Technology in Pakistan, Advanced Studies Board, HEJ Research Inst. of Chemistry, Karachi University, 1993-, The World Bank Committee for Higher Education in Pakistan, elected member, Scientific and Medical Advisory Board, the International Retinitis Pigmentosa Society (Retinitis Pigmentosa International) and The Foundation Fighting Blindness society, Washington DC (1993–present), Human Genome Organization (HUGO), London (UK), founding member, Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) USA. (1994–present), chairman, Southwest Asia Committee and Member International Executive Committee, HGDP and (1997–present), among a number of other professional bodies. During his last years, he had been working on charting a direction for the future of biomedical research in Pakistan. Other than his role in HGDP, he is known for his groundbreaking work on the genetics of human populations, especially on research work related to the human features of Light skin and Dark skin, where he and his team made important contributions (ref.: see Light skin and Dark skin pages citing his work). He has written over two hundred publications, including papers in Science, Nature Genetics and Genome Research. As per google scholar, his publications have accrued a total number of 7745 citations, his scholarly indices include an h-index of 38 and I10-index of 67. Mehdi died peacefully in Lahore on 28 September 2016 after a protracted illness.

Fellowships Wellcome Trust Biochemical Society Third World Academy of Sciences Pakistan Academy of Sciences Islamic Academy of Sciences Chemical Society of Pakistan

Selected publications Underhill, Peter A.; Shen, Peidong; Lin, Alice A.; Jin, Li; Passarino, Giuseppe; Yang, Wei H.; Kauffman, Erin; Bonné-Tamir, Batsheva; Bertranpetit, Jaume; Francalacci, Paolo; others (1 January 2000). "Y chromosome sequence variation and the history of human populations". Nature Genetics. 26 (3): 358–361. doi:10.1038/81685. PMID 11062480. S2CID 12893406. Underhill, Peter A.; Jin, Li; Lin, Alice A.; Mehdi, S. Qasim; Jenkins, Trefor; Vollrath, Douglas; Davis, Ronald W.; Cavalli-Sforza, L. Luca; Oefner, Peter J. (1 January 1997). "Detection of numerous Y chromosome biallelic polymorphisms by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography". Genome Research. 7 (10): 996–1005. doi:10.1101/gr.7.10.996. PMC 310671. PMID 9331370. Cann, Howard M.; De Toma, Claudia; Cazes, Lucien; Legrand, Marie-Fernande; Morel, Valerie; Piouffre, Laurence; Bodmer, Julia; Bodmer, Walter F.; Bonne-Tamir, Batsheva; Cambon-Thomsen, Anne; others (1 January 2002). "A human genome diversity cell line panel". Science. 296 (5566): 261–2. doi:10.1126/science.296.5566.261b. PMID 11954565. S2CID 41595131. Pagani, Luca; Kivisild, Toomas; Tarekegn, Ayele; Ekong, Rosemary; Plaster, Chris; Gallego Romero, Irene; Ayub, Qasim; Mehdi, S. Qasim; Thomas, Mark G.; Luiselli, Donata; Bekele, Endashaw; Bradman, Neil; Balding, David J.; Tyler-Smith, Chris (2012). "Ethiopian Genetic Diversity Reveals Linguistic Stratification and Complex Influences on the Ethiopian Gene Pool". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 91 (1): 83–96. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.05.015. PMC 3397267. PMID 22726845. Quintana-Murci, Lluís; Chaix, Raphaëlle; Wells, R. Spencer; Behar, Doron M.; Sayar, Hamid; Scozzari, Rosaria; Rengo, Chiara; Al-Zahery, Nadia; Semino, Ornella; Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. Silvana; Coppa, Alfredo; Ayub, Qasim; Mohyuddin, Aisha; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Qasim Mehdi, S.; Torroni, Antonio; McElreavey, Ken (1 May 2004). "Where West Meets East: The Complex mtDNA Landscape of the Southwest and Central Asian Corridor". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 74 (5): 827–845. doi:10.1086/383236. PMC 1181978. PMID 15077202.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Qasim Mehdi

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Qasim Mehdi claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, 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 Qasim Mehdi 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 Qasim Mehdi 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 Qasim Mehdi

In research: Qasim Mehdi appears in chemistry 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 Qasim Mehdi 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: Qasim Mehdi is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, 2016 deaths, Academic staff of the University of Karachi, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Qasim Mehdi 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 Qasim Mehdi in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Qasim Mehdi 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 Qasim Mehdi out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Qasim Mehdi in simple terms?

Why does Qasim Mehdi matter?

Because it connects several chemistry 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 Qasim Mehdi?

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 Qasim Mehdi.