Mubarak Ahmad Khan

Mubarak Ahmad Khan is a Bangladeshi scientist working on the commercial uses and possibilities of jute, considered by the research database Scopus to be the leading scientist in the study of jute worldwide. He worked at the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission from 1984, rising to its director general (2015–2017), and since 2017 he has been scientific adviser to the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation. His inventions include the Sonali Bag, a biodegradable jute-cellulose bag offered as an alternative to polythene bags, and Jutin, a jute-reinforced corrugated sheet, as well as an advanced wound dressing, and helmets and tiles made from jute. He received the Independence Award, Bangladesh's highest civilian honour, in 2024. ^{1 2}

He took his bachelor's and master's degrees at Jahangirnagar University and a PhD in polymer and radiation chemistry in 1991, followed by postdoctoral work in Germany, Japan and the United States and research fellowships in Australia, Germany, Japan and the United States over several decades. He began at the Atomic Energy Commission in 1984 as a scientific officer in the Radiation and Polymer Chemistry Laboratory, rose to senior and then principal scientific officer, chief scientific officer and director of the Institute of Radiation and Polymer Technology, and served as the Commission's director general from 2015 to 2017. He has taught at several Bangladeshi universities and since 2012 has been an adjunct professor of the University of Dhaka; he has supervised more than 300 master's students and 20 PhD students. ¹

Khan is known for his work on sustainable materials. The best known is the Sonali Bag: a cellulose-based biodegradable bioplastic bag that decomposes in soil within three to four months and dissolves in water, named by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2017 and offered as a practical alternative to polluting polythene bags. His other inventions include Jutin (2009), a lightweight, strong corrugated sheet of jute and polymer for low-cost housing; an advanced wound-dressing material from cow bone; biodegradable protective equipment from jute with chitosan; a sanitary napkin from a jute-based superabsorbent; a plant growth promoter from prawn shell; and a non-harmful alternative to formalin (2016). ¹

He received the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Gold Medal (2010 in the English article's list), the National Jute Award (2016), the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies Award (2017), the National Environment Award (2019), an MIT Solve Health Security & Pandemics award (2020), and the Independence Award for science and technology in 2024; Asian Scientist listed him among its Asian Scientist 100 in 2025. ¹

No article read for this entry gives him a birth date: the English article files him under "Year of birth missing", and the Bengali article's infobox birth-date field is empty. The year 1958 in the museum's data is carried from Wikidata alone, at year precision, as documented in the birth note of his record. ^{1 2}

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