Online Desk : A young scientist, who won Sheikh Russel Gold Medal after building low-cost oxygen concentrator during COVID-19 pandemic period, was killed in a road crash at Ishurdi upazila in Pabna district on Tuesday afternoon.

The deceased Taher Mahmud Tarif, 21, was son of late Abdus Samad, a resident of Mashuaripara in Ishurdi municipality.

According to locals, Tarif was heading towards Pabna on a CNG-run autorickshaw. On the way, the driver of the vehicle lost control over the wheels of the autorickshaw and hit a stationary truck on the Ishurdi-Pabna highway around 12pm. Tarif was critically injured.

He was rescued by locals and taken to Pabna General Hospital where the physicians referred him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital but Tarif succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital.

Watching his (Tarif) father die without oxygen support while suffering from a cardiac condition in 2020, young Tarif had resolved to build a low-cost oxygen concentrator device to prevent any more such tragic deaths when the country had been facing a huge shortage of Oxygen supply due to COVID-19 in 2021.

As a young innovator, Tarif had received the Sheikh Russell Gold Medal in 2022 from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina . From 2020 to 2023, he was awarded as the best junior scientist at the district level in four national science and technology fairs.

Ishurdi Upazila Executive Officer (UNO) Subir Kumar Das confirmed the death matter.