Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, Pakistani chemist and scholar (b. 1897)
Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, (Urdu: سلیم الزّماں صدّیقی [səˈliːmʊzːəmaːn sɪˈd̪ːiːqi]; 19 October 1897 – 14 April 1994) was a Pakistani organic chemist specialising in natural products, and a professor of chemistry at the University of Karachi.
Siddiqui studied philosophy at Aligarh Muslim University and later studied chemistry at Frankfurt University, where he received his PhD in 1927. On return to British India, he worked at the Tibbia College Delhi and the Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. He later moved to Pakistan and worked in the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He went on to establish the Pakistan National Science Council and was appointed its first chairman in 1961. In the same year he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He later co-founded the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, and after retirement from the government, he founded the Hussain Ebrahim Jamal Research Institute of Chemistry.Siddiqui is credited with pioneering the isolation of unique chemical compounds from the Neem (Azadirachta indica), Rauvolfia, and various other flora. As the founder director of H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, he revolutionised research of the pharmacology of various domestic plants found in South Asia to extract novel chemical substances of medicinal importance. During his career, Siddiqui published more than 300 research papers and obtained 40 patents mainly from the field of natural product chemistry. In addition to his scientific talents, Siddiqui was also an avid painter, poet, and a great connoisseur of Western music. His paintings were exhibited in the United States, Germany, India, and Pakistan.