A tribute to an outstanding vibrant scientist with a tremendous impact on the world, Dr. Hamidreza Hajiqanbar

Here with our sorrowful hearts, we announce the devastating news of death of our friend and colleague, Dr. Hamidreza Hajiqanbar, an exceptional acarologist. Hamidreza was born on August 17, 1973 in Mashhad, where he grew up and attended his elementary to high schools. His university education began in 1994 at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, where he received his B.Sc. (Plant Protection) in 1998 and discovered his enthusiasm in entomology. During his undergraduate (B.Sc.) program, he attended the Agricultural Entomology Research Department, at the Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection (formerly "Plant Pests and Diseases Research Institute") for his “Training Course”, under the supervision of the late Prof. Gholamreza Radjabi, in summer 1997. It was there that Ali Ahadiyat first met Hamid and noticed his intense interest in working on insects. At the same year, he started his Master of Science (Agricultural Entomology) at the University of Tabriz which he successfully completed in 2001. Hamid completed his master's degree thesis on “Collection and identification of mites of Miandoab sugar beet fields”, in which he discovered his passion for mites, under the supervision of Prof. Karim Haddad Irani- Nejad. After three years, he started his Ph.D. Entomology program at the Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, which he completed in 2008. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on “Heterostigmatic mites (Acari: Heterostigmata) associated with Coleoptera and Hymenoptera in some regions of Razavi and North Khorasan provinces” under the supervision of Prof. Karim Kamali. While working on his Ph.D. thesis, he visited Alexander A. Khaustov at the Nikita Botanical Gardens, National Scientific Center, Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine, in 2007, and worked there under his supervision for four months. It resulted in about eight academic papers published in international journals. ...