I am a currently a lecturer at the University Kebangsaan Malaysia which was set up in May 1970, and just three years before I graduated in Veterinary Medicine from University of Punjab, Pakistan. In its infancy the University was exercising a 'recruiting drive' to make up the necessary brain-power to run the University. I applied and was accepted by the University. I was then asked to major in microbiology and my postgraduate studies were sponsored by the University. I was accepted to pursue my studies in Cardiff and Massachusetts (USA). I decided on Cardiff and I believe it was an excellent choice.

 

I arrived at Cardiff in October 1974 to work with David Lloyd. The microbiology I studied earlier was mainly a preclinical subject offered to Veterinary students and there was no research project to undertake as part of the degree and thus I had no research experience at all before coming to Cardiff. I was glad that David was willing to take me and with his supervision and with the help from Lynda John (his technician) was able to complete my PhD within three and a half years.

 

I had little contact with Prof. Hughes but was made to understand that he expects all students in the lab to work hard and thus when anyone sees him approaching the lab, an early warning sign was given.

 

When I joined the Department, Julian nicknamed David the `author' which I came to know later was because David had just published his book 'The mitochondria of microorganisms'. My research work was on the cell cycle of Candida utilis which takes 1-2 hrs to double depending on the carbon source used. I was looking at the respiratory enzymes and this had to be done every 15 min for more than 2 cycles which would take between 3-5 hrs. The toughest part of the work was getting the samples in 15 min which included counting the cells, centrifuging, breaking the cells using the French press, centrifuging again to get the released enzymes before finally assaying the enzymes after a short break. This work was not done all the time for I still had time for other activities.

 

On returning to Malaysia in March 1978 our main focus was on teaching due to the shortage of staff. As an academic institution, research is also an integral part and an important performance indicator for promotion. Research was more product orientated and thus I joined a group which was interested in methane production (biogas) from agrowastes. This project reminded me of Raja Shuib who was working on a similar area with Stafford using chicken manure and who on several accasions had to spend time cleaning the lab floor due to spillage. We were using tapioca pulp which was not as bad as the chicken manure but eventually we had to abandon the project for the pulp served better as an animal feed. Palm oil mill effluent (POME) was found to be a better substrate for biogas production. Anaerobic digestion of POME is widely used among the bigger palm oil mills to bring down the BOD load as required by the Department of Environment.

 

I got more involved in agrowastes when we proposed a bigger programme which involved using microbial enzymes for bioconversion of cellulolisic materials. This was the time when the cost of petroleum was on the increase and and efforts were directed towards finding an alternative source of energy. Our main concentration was on the biodegradation of cellulose using cellulase from a locally isolated organism, a fungi later identified by the Commonwealth Mycological Institute as Aspergillus terreus IMI 282743. Our main substrate was the empty fruit bunch of oil palm. Land under oil palm covers slightly more then 2 million hectares, so there is plenty of the fruit bunches. I managed to produce a PhD and a MSc student under this project.

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In 1991 we came up with a new curriculum for the undergraduate programme with a greater emphasis on molecular biology. This means that the lecturers must not only have some basis but also know some of the techniques. The comments of Professor David Lloyd were also taken into account especially on the load of students doing their final year research project. David was in Malaysia in 1988 as an external examiner of our Department.

 

At present I have a student trying to determine the location of the cellulase gene. It is not very easy to get postgraduate students since most of them find employment quite easily. Though some of them are not directly involved in microbiology they are in demand especially as marketing officers for scientific products and equipments.

 

In October 1993, I spent two weeks following a course in recombinant DNA techniques and another three weeks in a lab in Maryland (USA). Earlier in April 1991 I was at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh attending a British Council course in Advances in Biotechnology for 2 weeks. That was the first time I had a chance to revisit UK but could not make it to Cardiff because I had to be back immediately after the course. Almost 12 years after leaving Cardiff I found the cost of living was very much higher then before.

 

Finally I wish to thank David for sending a copy of the Festschrift and am looking forward to the release of Volume 2. I too wish the continuing innovation and progress for microbiology at Cardiff University.