Low-cost, on-site monitoring of agrochemicals: paraquat detection using magnetic molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensors
November 6, 2025
The Crawford Fund’s Queensland Committee has again partnered with the TropAg International Agriculture Conference to assist 10 young researchers from developing countries attend and present their science at this international conference which will be held in Brisbane from 11-13 November 2025.
Successful conference scholarship candidates must be an Honours or Postgraduate student from a developing country who is currently studying at a Queensland tertiary institute, and they must be an author or co-author on a submitted TropAg 2025 Conference abstract.
In the lead-up to the conference we will be publishing short blog posts written by the young researchers about their work. Here is the last blog in the series.
By M Ashraful Kader, James Cook University
M Ashraful Kader, a student from Bangladesh, is pursuing his PhD in Natural and Physical Sciences at James Cook University (JCU), Australia, supported by the JCU Postgraduate Research Scholarship. He is doing doctoral work with Dr Yang Liu, Associate Professor at James Cook University.
In his doctoral research, he is developing advanced electrochemical sensing technology that integrates selective molecularly imprinted polymers with nanomaterials to enable easy and precise detection of pesticide in agricultural fields.
As pesticides play a vital role in agricultural productivity, it is equally important to protect the environment and living organisms from their harmful effects. These
innovative sensors are capable of detecting ultra-low concentrations of pesticides in fields and surrounding environments, offering a low-cost, on-site, and user-friendly measurement that does not require any complex sample preparation and provides rapid results. This technology will help achieve safe agricultural practices and sustainable environmental monitoring.
Prior to joining the PhD, Mr Kader earned a B.Sc. in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology from Jessore University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh and an M.Sc. in Industrial Biotechnology from Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah, Malaysia. During his M.Sc., he published several peer reviewed research and review articles on electrochemical sensing and awarded a Silver Medal at CITREX 2022 (Malaysia) for his research excellence.
Currently in his second year of PhD, he has secured the Eric Booth Memorial Grant and an HDR Competitive Research Grant to support his doctoral work. Alongside, he serves as a casual academic, mentoring students in laboratory analysis and instrumentation.
