Prof. Syed Qasem Mahdi is the Director General, Biomedical and Genetic Engineering Division, A Q Khan Researsch Laboratory, Islamabad. Pakistan. he was born on 13 February 1941. He was a visiting professor of Molecular Biology and Genetic Medicine at HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, Karachi University, and  the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Dow Medical College, Karachi,Pakistan. Dr Mehdi  was awarded his PhD from the Department of Biochemistry, Magdalen College, University of Oxford, UK, 1969. The title of thesis was " synthesis and Control of Bacterial Ribonucleic Acids".  Prior to that, he did his MSc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, 1966. During his spell at the MIT, he undertook a research project entitled, "Early Kinetics of Induced Enzyme Synthesis " for which he received the Sigma Xi Award for "Outstanding Research" from the American Socity for the Promotion of Research. He got his first degree from Lucknow University, India, 1963, in Biochemistry.

Since 1991, Dr Mehdi has been the Director General, Biomedical and Genetic Engineering Division, A Q Khan Research Laboratories, Islamabad, Pakistan. 1986-1991, Head, National Institute for Biotechnology and /Genetic Engineering, Biomedical Division, Lahore, Pakistan. 1980-1992, Director(Scientific), the Alexander Medical Foundation, CA. USA. 1980-1986, Senior Research Fellow and Research Professor, Departments of Chemistry and Radiology, Cancer Biology Research Labs, Stanford University. 1976-1980 Senior Research Associate, Department of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine Division, Stanford Unversity.

Dr Mehdi was a visiting professor, Klinikum Steglitz, the Free University.  Berlin  (West)  Germany, 1974-1976; Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Oxford University, UK, 1972-1974 ; Nuffield Consultant Biochemist, Children’s Hospital, Boston. Mass., USA , 1964-1965; and Research Assistant, Biology Department, MIT , Cambridge, Mass., USA ,1963-1966.

Dr S Q Mehdi is Member/Fellow of the Biochemical Society (UK,1972-1997);The American Thyroid Association; The Oxford Union Society (life member); The Oxford-Cambridge Society; American Society for Human Genetics; American Assoc. for the advancement of Science; Fellow, National Academy of Medical Sciences-Pakistan; Fellow, Chemical Society of Pakistan; Fellow, Third World Academy of  Sciences;Fellow, Pakistan Academy of Sciences; Member, Human Genome Organization (HUGO). USA; Member International Executive Committee; Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP), USA. Prof. Mehdi has published well over 120 research papers, of which many were published in international journals.

He was elected a Fellow of the Islamic Academy of Sciences in 2000. Prof. Mehdi Director General, Biomedical & Genetic Engineering Division, KRL, P.O. Box 2891, Islamabad, Pakistan.