The Barometer Online

MUG: Received Presidential Award [Click to enlarge]

Mahfuzur R. Sarker, an assistant professor of microbiology at Oregon State University, has received a Presidential Award for Early Career Scientists and Engineers.

This award, established in 1996, honors the most promising beginning researchers in the nation within their fields.

On May 4, Sarker visited the White House to receive the nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers.

Fifty-seven researchers were honored in a ceremony presided over by John H. Marburger III, Science Advisor to the president and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

"I was surprised and honored to receive this unexpected 'God-gifted' award" Sarker said.

Sarker was awarded "for his outstanding research in improving the understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in heat resistance of Clostridium perfringens spores," Marburger said.

In fact, Sarker's research group started working on food-borne disease over a year ago.

"It is named as 'food-borne' because bacteria or a virus enters into the human intestine via food and causes disease," Sarker explained. "This spore can survive in pre-cooked or under-cooked food for a long time. When the spore-contaminated food is consumed, these spores enter into the gut where they multiply and produce toxin to cause diarrheic symptoms."

Sarker's work on spore heat resistance was recognized as cutting-edge pathogenic microbiology that will develop our perception in controlling and preventing the food poisoning caused by bacteria that form spores.

"The long-term goal of our research is to develop a vaccine against food-borne disease," Sarker said.

In 2002, Sarker's proposal was ranked first by the Food Safety of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National research Initiative. His new Presidential Early Career Award led to his USDA grant being extended to five years.

"This award adds a couple of years of guaranteed funding to my laboratory and gives me a wonderful opportunity to investigate some very important aspects of food-borne disease," Sarker said.

A citizen of Bangladesh, Sarker received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokushima, Japan, in 1995 and joined Oregon State University in August 2000.

He is now trying to publish some of his research findings in scientific journals, and develop some collaborative research projects with organizations in Bangladesh.

"My feeling is that there is no alternative to hard working," Sarker said. "I believe in luck but you have to work hard to reach your destination."

Frederic Texier is a staff writer for The Daily Barometer. He can be reached at baro.campus@studentmedia.orst.edu.

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