An endowment award at Stella Maris College, an Android app, a postal stamp, and a lot of love and affection are what ecologist Sultan Ahmed Ismail’s students offered on his completion of 40 years as a teacher.
Though he has 70 research publications on the earthworm and vermicomposting to his credit and has travelled around the world teaching and spreading knowledge, his 17 PhD., 32 M.Phil and thousands of B.Sc and M.Sc students are his biggest assets in life.
His students got together recently with Science City to celebrate the landmark. Farmers from Tiruvallur, who have benefited from organic farming and vermicomposting, brought baskets of fruits and vegetables to the event.
“He wouldn’t mind getting his hands dirty. When we took him to the fields, he wouldn’t hesitate to dig into the soil or into the vermicompost pit,” said a farmer.
It was on November 25, 1974, Mr. Ismail joined service as a demonstrator at New College, after an M.Sc in Zoology. In 2001, he got his D.Sc from the University of Madras.
Chitralekha Ramachandran, who retired recently from Stella Maris College, and was the first to register for PhD. with ‘Ismail sir’, said she became a better teacher after learning with him.
“He got us involved in all his research activities. He would acknowledge our contributions and took pride in it. When we went through bad times, he was always there for us,” she said.
M. Ramalakshmi, who is currently doing research on biodegradation of pesticides and has known Mr. Ismail for the past 10 years, said, “He was research director at MGR Janaki College where I did my M.Sc. I have not known a kinder teacher. He would set the timetable in such a manner that I had enough time for my family and my work.”
And how did Mr. Ismail become such a good teacher? “I had four very good teachers — Sambamurthy Chettiar, in school, who used to demonstrate science experiments in the 60s, Prof. Nandakumar in PUC, who was expressive and very fluent in zoology, and G.J. Phanuel and V.A. Murthy who always inspired me. Mr. Murthy was always there for me. When my PhD. guide passed away, I went to him and he never lost an opportunity to encourage me,” he said.
