Bangladeshi vaccine scientist wins Ramon Magsaysay award

This undated handout photograph released by Philippine's Ramon Magsaysay Foundation on August 31, 2021 shows Bangladeshi scientist Firdausi Qadri (L) administering an oral cholera vaccine to a man in Dhaka.

A Bangladeshi vaccine scientist and a microfinance pioneer from Pakistan were among the five recipients of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award — regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize — announced on Tuesday.

Apart from Dr. Firdausi Qadri from Bangladesh and Muhammad Amjad Saqib from Pakistan, the other winners are Filipino fisher and community environmentalist Roberto Ballon, American Steven Muncy for humanitarian work and refugee assistance and Indonesian torch bearer for investigative journalism, Watchdoc.

Dr. Qadri, 70, who has a doctorate from Liverpool University, U.K., joined International Centre For Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, (an international health research institute based in Dhaka) in 1988. She was recognised for “her passion and life-long devotion to the scientific profession,” the award citation said.