Md. Firoze Quamar<sup>1,*,**,***

1</sup>Quaternary Palynology Lab., Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India

^*CONTACT Md. Firoze Quamar quamar_bot@yahoo.co.in; mohdfiroze_quamar@bsip.res.in Quaternary Palynology Lab., Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, 53 University Road, Lucknow, 226007 India.
^**Mohammad Firoze Quamar is presently working as a research scientist (Scientist ‘D’) at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh State), India. He completed his early education in the Madarsa (Islamic School, where much emphasis was given on Islamic studies; however Rashtra Bhasha-Hindi, Urdu, English, Mathematics and Science are also tought) and the Primary School (a Government Hindi-medium School) at his remote village-Rampurkesho (Sitamarhi District; now in the Sheohar District), Bihar State, India and then moved to the Middle School, Parihar (where his father was an Assistant Teacher in Arts and Language & Literature at Sri Jawahar High School, Khairwa Vishnupur) – a small township in the Sitamarhi District (Bihar State) in the early nineties along with his parents and elder brother and (two) younger sisters. After passing his matriculation in 1994 with 1 Division from Sri Gandhi High School (a Government Hindi-medium School), Parihar, he enrolled in Intermediate (Science) in Ram Dayalu Singh (R.D.S.) College, Muzaffarpur District (Bihar State) and passed his Intermediate examination in 1996 (in English-medium) with 2 Division. Meanwhile, in 1994, while he was at his home village and waiting for his Matriculation Result and also there was flooding everywhere around the Sitamarhi District and adjoining districts in Bihar, which halted the entire transportation owing to the collapse of so many bridges and roads also (ultimately thwarted his movement as well from his place of abode to the nearby bigger Township for further study), he tried to use his precious time in doing some good deeds and finally decided to go to Jamaat (Tablighi Jamaat).
^***He went around the nearby villages of his home village for three days along with some of his village colleagues and also with some learned Islamic Scholars for earning the basic knowledge of the Islam and also to invite other Muslim brothers to learn the basics of Islam in order to lead a pious life, encompassing honesty and truthfulness, boldness, compassion, dedication, and all good things required to be a saner element of the society, which is, in fact, always tought in Tablighi Jamaat. This act has helped him a lot to lead a pious life, to be bold and to be a patriot, ultimately. After graduating (B.Sc. Botany Hons.) in 1999 from the same college with 1 Division, he went to the University Department of Botany, Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University (B.R.A.B.U.), Muzaffarpur (Bihar), India, in 2001 and earned his M.Sc. in Botany (with specialisation in Plant Biotechnology) officially in 2001 with 1 Class 1 Position. He joined BSIP, Lucknow as a Birbal Sahni Research Scholar (BSRS) in 2007 and completed his Ph.D. (in Botany) from Lucknow University, Lucknow in 2011. He also worked as a Birbal Sahni Research Associate (BSRA) at the BSIP from May 2011 to 29 October 2013. He was selected as Scientist ‘B’ in BSIP in year 2013 and joined the Office on 29 October, 2013. He is a Quaternary palynologist by training and his research interests mainly include the reconstruction of pollen-based vegetation dynamics, climate change and the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) variability from the central Indian core monsoon zone (CMZ) during the late Quaternary Period/the Holocene Epoch. He takes keen interest in studying non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) for understanding the herbivory and palaeoherbivory. He has published 57 research papers (including seven review articles) and seven meeting reports in peer-reviewed journals.