HOSSAIN MD SAHADAT won three prizes (best presentation, audience choice, and Springer Nature awards) at the HIRAKU 3MT Competition 2018, held at the Higashi Hiroshima Arts & Culture Hall (Kurara), 15 September, 2018.
His laboratory focuses on phytprotectants, which are chemicals that can protect plants from abiotic stresses. Researchers are still searching for new chemicals that are inexpensive, eco-friendly, and more effective compared with existing chemicals. In his research, he is trying to find chemicals that can enhance multiple stress tolerance. Furthermore, he would like to better understand the mechanism of stress tolerance in plants.
Comment from Hossain Md Shahadat
Hello. I am Md Shahadat Hossain from Bangladesh. I came to Japan in 2015. After completing a master’s degree from Kagawa University, I enrolled as a PhD student at Ehime University. I like watching Japanese anime, travelling, and reading books.
In the presentation, I talked about how to sustain crop production under stressful conditions. As you know, different environmental conditions, for example, when the soil is too salty, when there is not enough water, when it floods, or when it is very hot outside, are stressful for crop plants. As plants cannot move, they have to suffer these stresses. As a result, plants cannot grow well and ultimately crop production decreases. Depending on the severity of stress, crop production losses can be 50 to 100%. Now, the question is how can we ensure sufficient food for increasing populations under these stressful conditions.
In my research, I am trying to sustain crop production under stressful conditions. Therefore, we used different chemicals to protect plants from stresses. Surprisingly, we found that vinegar protected 90% of plants from salt stress. However, almost all plants without vinegar died due to salt stress. Interestingly, vinegar is cheap and it has no negative impact on people as well as the environment. However, before practical application in the field, we need to develop a suitable application method for it. I believe we can maintain crop production under stressful conditions using vinegar.
As my impression of the result of this prize, to be honest, I did not expect to win anything in the competition. To my good fortune, I came first. Furthermore, I got the audience choice award and the Springer Nature award. It was a really nice experience that I cannot express in words. I am very much thankful to my supervisor, lab mates, friends and family.
I want to be a scientist. My plan is to continue my research. After finishing the PhD, I will try to join a company or research organization somewhere in the world as a researcher. Last but not least, I want to contribute to society by solving problems using my expertise and knowledge. I want to help make a peaceful world using science.
I like a Japanese phrase “やってみないと分からない”, which means “you won’t understand unless you try”. So, stop thinking too much. Just do whatever you want to do.
