Kuala Lumpur, 30 November 2013 ~ Prof Emeritus Dato’ Sri Dr Zakri Abdul Hamid, Chairman of Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation (BiotechCorp) and Joint Chairman of the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), will be conferred an honorary doctorate in Biotechnology from Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UNiSZA) for his outstanding work in the field in conjunction with the university’s fifth convocation ceremony in Kuala Terengganu today.

Zakri, who was recently one of 26 appointees to the UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board, made history when he was elected as the first Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Recently, Zakri was also awarded the Matsuda award from the International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences (ISSAAS) in Manila in recognition of his global role in championing the cause of conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity and in particular, for raising awareness on the importance of conserving the genetic resources of agricultural crops in the Southeast Asian region, a centre of origin for rice, banana, sugarcane and citrus.

“I am honored and grateful to UNiSZA for conferring this honorary doctorate to me in appreciation for my work in the field of biotechnology. There is much to be done and
I am very confident, with the support from institutions of higher learning such as UNiSZA, we can achieve our country’s true potential in the field.

Zakri has served previously as secretary-general for the Society for the Advancement of Breeding Researches in Asia-Oceania (SABRAO) from 1981 to 1989 and was the founding President of the Genetics Society of Malaysia (1994-2000). Among his publications is a book on the “Genetic Resources of Under-Utilized Plants in Malaysia” (1989) and another one on “Agriculture, Human Security and Peace” (2008).

He was also the first Asian elected as the Chair of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in
1997