Islam A ‘Isi’ Siddiqui has been nominated by US President Barak Obama to be the Chief Agricultural Negotiator at the Office of the US Trade Representative.

This news has pleasantly surprised the staff and students of the GB Pant University of Agriculture at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. Siddiqui had graduated in agriculture from this University way back in 1963. He is now all set to negotiate contentious agricultural issues with India and other developing countries at the World Trade Organisation’s stalled Doha Round. According to the information available, Siddiqui was born in Haldwani and had joined the Pantnagar University in 1960 — at that time the institution was known as Uttar Pradesh Agriculture University.

In fact, on learning about his nomination by Obama, one of his classmates from the university, Dr Gajendra Singh, wrote to the university authorities about the achievements of his friend. Dr Singh is a former Vice-Chancellor of the Doon University in Dehradun. He was not available for comments when The Indian Express tried to contact him.

“We feel proud of the achievement of one of the university alumnus. The university is elated. All our students and staff are proud of him,” said Dr K K Singh, the Registrar of the university. He informed that Siddiqui had done his doctorate research in plant pathology at the University of Illinois.

People in Haldwani, however, are unaware of the achievements of Siddiqui.

Siddiqui is currently the vice-president, Science and Regulatory Affairs, at the Washington-based Crop Life America, where he is responsible for regulatory and international trade issues related to crop protection chemicals.