Dr. Bushra Allah Rakha, Assistant Professor, Department of Wildlife Management has been awarded a highly competitive "Dayong Gao Young Investigator Award-2020" along with honorarium of USD 5000/- from the Society for Cryobiology (International Society for low temperature Biology and Medicine) and delivered a special lecture entitled "Effect of glutathione on lipid peroxidation, mitochondrial function, antioxidant activity and quality of Indian red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus murghi) semen" in a virtual meeting held on July 21-23 2020.

Dr. Bushra Allah Rakha is the pioneer who worked on semen banking of wild avian and mammalian species in Pakistan. The overall aim of her research is to develop protocols/techniques for sperm sexing and in vitro preservation of germplasm for long period. Her recent research work in this context is directed towards the improvement of reproductive biotechnologies through; sperm sexing and validation through Real-time PCR, developing DNA based sperm quality markers, implication of frost-resistant (anti- freezing) proteins, reducing oxidative stress, bio-membrane stabilizing agents, developing novel freezing regimens, controlling semen bacteremia, gamete selection techniques, usage of permeable and non-permeable cryoprotectants, harvesting of epididydmal sperm from deceased animals, use of third generation cryo-diluents of plant origin, optimizing gamete harvesting techniques, elucidation of seasonal changes and developing artificial insemination protocols for avian species (Indian Red Jungle Fowl, Ring-necked Pheasant, Common Quail, Japanese Quail and Scaled Quail).