Assam’s Mustafa A Barbhuiya who is a junior faculty at the Penn State University College of Medicine in the US has been named among 40 high-achieving pathologists under age 40 for the prestigious ‘2019 ASCP 40 Under Forty’ list by American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP).
The ASCP, world’s largest body on pathology, recognizes scientists for their contribution and achievements in the scientific field and empowers them to become leaders that are making an impact on pathology and laboratory medicine.
Hailing from a small village called Bahadurpur of Halikandi in the southern Assam, Barbhuiya, now will be in the fray for the top five which will be announced after public voting. The top five will each receive free registration to attend ASCP 2019, along with a USD 1,000 stipend toward airfare and lodging. They will be formally recognized at a Leader’s Celebration luncheon at ASCP 2019, said a statement of the ASCP.
“I am thrilled and humbled by this recognition. I would like to use this opportunity to strengthen my expertise and vision of service through the profession of laboratory medicine. The nomination will provide me the perfect buffer zone of networks to achieve this goal,” Barbhuiya told The News Mill.
He has founded a non-profit organization in Guwahati named Foundation for Advancement of Essential Diagnostics to promote and work on the enrichment of ‘World Health Organization’s Essential Diagnostic List’ for Assam and NE India.
“I would like to expand this work throughout South East Asia. Nomination to this award and the prestige associated, the networking capacity that I garner from it simply makes it a baby step forward to achieve this,” Barbhuiya added.
Barbhuiya is a clinical chemistry fellow and junior faculty at the department of pathology and laboratory medicine, Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey where he practices academic laboratory medicine and clinical laboratory management.
Before starting his laboratory medicine career, Barbhuiya earned a doctorate in biochemistry in 2013 from Jiwaji University, Gwalior and subsequently completed postdoctoral studies (2013-2018) from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, US. He is broadly trained in molecular pathology, clinical biochemistry, medical laboratory sciences, cancer epidemiology, cancer biomarkers, next generation sequencing and mass spectrometry.
He fondly recalls how he used to walk 10 kilometres thrice a week to attend mathematics tuition as there was no advanced mathematics teacher available in his remote village.
Born on December 31, 1979, Barbhuiya studied in a village school of Hailakandi and cleared HSLC in 1996 from Sanuhar Ali Memorial High School, Bahadurpur. He joined Gurucharan College, Silchar in the Science stream for Higher Secondary and BSc (Zoology).
