March 26, 2016. The Independence Day Award (Bengali: স্বাধীনতা পদক), also termed Independence Award (Bengali: স্বাধীনতা পুরস্কার), Swadhinata Padak, and Swadhinata Puroskar, the highest state award given by the government of Bangladesh was given posthumously to Professor Alam for his outstanding contribution to the field of science and education. His contribution along with his associates of Bangladesh Jute Research Institute includes the unraveling of the jute genome, Bangladesh being the first country to establish her claim to crack the genome of the two jute species. Professor Alam succeeded in obtaining a liberal grant from the government of Bangladesh. He utilized this sum of money in setting up an ultramodern biotech laboratory within the premises of BJRI. The scientists who worked under his able guidance succeeded in record time to unravel the genome of the deadly fungus, namely, Macrophomina phaseolina which sometimes damages severely the entire jute crop in certain areas in Bangladesh.