PN Saxena

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Prem Narain Saxena (15 October 1925 – 29 November 1999) was the Founder Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology,

Prem Narain Saxena was born on 15 October 1925, in the village of Bithri-chainpur, Bareilly. It was a joint orthodox family village.^{[citation needed]} He was the first child of his parents, Raghunandan Prasad and Saraswati Devi, and had three sisters. He married Rajeshwari Saxena.^[2]

Education

Saxena was schooled initially in his home village but from the age of six or seven he went to

He was awarded his PhD from the Patna University in 1963^{[citation needed]} and his DSc from the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, in 1978.^[3]

Career

He joined the Department of Pharmacology of

In the university, he had also acted as Dean, Faculty of Medicine, In-charge, Animal House and on few occasions as acting Principal Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College and acting Vice Chancellor of the University. As a Professor Emeritus, he continued his active research in the Department of Pharmacology till late December 1994 but due to illness of his wife (suffering from cancer and ultimately died on 19 March 1996); he did not manage to visit the department regularly and discontinued all his academic services from 1995.^[citation needed]

Contribution, awards and achievements

He is nationally and internationally known as a leading neuro-pharmacologist as he worked mostly in the field of neuroscience. He was awarded the Fellowship of Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in USA during 1960–61; Commonwealth Medical Fellowship and then Wellcome Research Fellowship in England during the 1970s. In London at the National Institute for Medical Research, he worked on mechanism of action of Pyrogen and in the field of thermoregulation, with Wilhelm Feldberg (1900–1993), a renowned German-British-Jewish pharmacologist and biologist. Wilhelm Feldberg assisted many research workers who came to England as a part of their Commonwealth Medical Fellowship and Wellcome Research Fellowship. Under these Fellowships, Saxena and Feldberg published many papers during the 1970s.^[4]

In total, Saxena has approximately 145 published research papers. He wrote Hospital Formulary in 1969 and a book-cum-manual for practical pharmacy and experimental pharmacology laboratory.

He had been founding member of many academic bodies such Indian Pharmacological Society, Association of Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India, Indian Medical Association, Indian Academy of Neurosciences and Indian Association for the Advancement of Medical Education in India. Indian National Science Academy (INSA) elected him Fellow (FNA) in 1987.^[5][6]

Death and family

Saxena died of a second stroke on 29 November 1999. He was admitted to KK Hospital, Aligarh before death. He was fond of Urdu and Persian poetry and maintained a diary where he used to write his favourite couplets of Urdu poetry. His mother tongue was Urdu.^{[citation needed]}

Saxena had two daughters and one son.

See also

• KC Singhal
  , student
• Syed Ziaur Rahman, student

Sources

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (license statement/permission). Text taken from Late Professor P N Saxena: A teacher of excellence​, Rahman, SZ; Khan, RA (Nov 2010), J Pharmacol Pharmacother.

References