Highlights on the life of

Dr. Mohammed Ali Hubaishan:

The Great Loss for the country and Agricultural Research
Dr. Mohammed Ali Hubaishan was born in Alhami District of Hadhramout Province in December 1954. He completed his BSc. Degree in the Nasser's faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Lahj province, the University of Aden in 1977. He then joined El-Kod Agricultural Research Center as an assistant researcher. He was granted a scholarship to pursue his higher education in the Slovak Science Academy, Institute of Entomology and Pathology Experiments, and completed his PhD degree in 1987 afetr which he returned back home and continued working as a researcher. He occupied different posts and performed a variety of roles and responsibilities some of which includes a chairmanship of of horticulture research team, industrial crop research team, and a national coordination of oil crops project. He was also appointed as a first director general of the Regional Agricultural Research Station of the Eastern Coastal Areas established then in 1996 at Al-Mukala, Hadharamout. In view of his active scientific research contributions, he was promoted to the rank of "senior researcher" in 2005. Dr. Hubaishan was also designated as a National Coordinator of the Yemeni-German Biodiversity Project that covered a number of Yemeni areas such as Huf and Fartak of Al-Mahra Province, Sukatra and Kor siban of Hadhramout, and Alaraees Mount of Abyan province. In his capacity as a crop protection researcher and more particularly as an entomologist, he was appointed as a technical advisor for the Datepalm Ommatissus lybicus De Berg (Homoptera : Tropiducidae) Control Campaigns (DOCC) in 2004. He was also assigned as a member of both the Steering Committee and the Technical Committee of DDCC in

Hadhramout province in 2006. He supervised the technical field work of these campaigns through the period 2005 2012. He further continued as a head of the Datepalm Duabs's {Ommatissus lybicus De Berg (Homoptera: Tropiducidae)} field inspection team till the last day of his life in cooperation and coordination with the offices of Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MOI) in Hadhramout (Al-Mukala and the Wadi), AlMahra and Shabwah provinces. In addition to his university and higher education qualifications, Dr. Hubaishan attended during his life career a number of short-term training courses in different subjects such as pesticides compositions, diagnosis of virology diseases and statistical analysis. He has also undertaken a large number of external scientific study tours and visits to regional and world research centers in Germany, India, Syria, and Holland. He has also participated in some specialized scientific conferences and symposia in the country and abroad such as Saudi Arabia, Sultanate of Oman and other European countries like French and the Slovak Republic. Besides, he prepared and presented some scientific and working paper in Datepalm symposia in Saudi Arabia, Farm Chemicals national conference in Sana'a, and Food Security in Lahj among others. The deceased has also scored during his professional life some academic achievements represented in his teaching efforts of two courses in the Nasser's faculty of agricultural sciences, Aden university. After about a decade of his graduation, he returned back to his college as a teacher of "Pests control" and "insects Physiology and Morphology" during the period 88-1989. Additionally, he served as a supervisor or co-advisor for at least 4 ( 1 MSc. and 3 PhD.) students at the same faculty. Theses write-up of some of these students were almost in final stage at the time of his death. All 4 dissertations were relating to crop protection and more particularly to Datepalm Dubas control in which he was engaged for about a decade round or more. In terms of his published work, Dr. Hubaishan has published at least 38 works of scientific research and studies that he either authored and/or co-authored most of which

(about 20 titles) appeared in referred specialized research journals inside Yemen and abroad such as the Yemeni Journal of Agricultural Research and Studies (YJARS), The Arab Plant Protection Journal and other Czechoslovakian and Hungarian Journals among others. The last piece of his intellectual work has appeared in the issue no. 24 of YJARS of December 2011, which for many reasons was only lately published (in November 2012) and was still in print on the day of his death. Some of Dr. Hubaishan's scientific and intellectual contributions has shown up in different reports, books and proceedings of symposia, conferences and training readings/manuals that were published by some Arab and Yemeni universities, and organizations such as the Agricultural Research and Extension Authority (AREA), Hadhramout University, King Faisal University, Jazan University, King AbdulAziz Science and Technology City, The Yemeni Life Science Society among others. In terms of periodical and annual reports produced by the deceased mostly as first author and jointly with other researchers, the number reached about 20 reports most of which have been focusing on issues relating to pests affecting some crops such as tobacco, okra and datepalm. These reports dealt with pests' control methods using either plant extractions, biological control, chemical pesticides use, pests lifecycle and pest's spread and behavior. Dr. Hubaishan was a member of the Arab Plant Protection Society, and a member of the Yemeni Biological Sciences Society and also was a chairman of Al-Hamy Agricultural Cooperative Association, Hadhramout. In addition to his mother tange (Arabic), he mastered English and fairly speaks German and Slovak languages. Hopefully the Agricultural Research Scientific Council with approval the promotion to the rank of "professor-researcher" for which he was applying before his death and deserve. Death of Dr. Hubaishan was a real loss for agricultural research, scientific community, and his country Yemen.