Ali served as a Professor of Physics at the
University of Dhaka from 1982 to 2006. Prior to his academic tenure, he was affiliated with the
International Centre for Theoretical Physics in
Trieste, Italy, and held key positions at both the
Pakistan and
Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commissions. Notably, he served as Director of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission in Dhaka between 1970 and 1978. Ali also played a prominent role in academic leadership, becoming the founding Vice-Chancellor of
Bangladesh Open University and later Vice-Chancellor of
Southeast University in Dhaka. From 2004 to 2012, he served as President of the
Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. Dr. M. Shamsher Ali co-developed a potential in the late 1960s with A. R. Bodmer while working in the UK. Their 1966 paper (“Phenomenological α–α potentials”) proposed a mathematical form for the α–α interaction that could reproduce observed scattering data and the properties of the ^8Be nucleus, which is essentially two alpha particles weakly bound together and it is taught in advanced nuclear physics courses and referenced in research on cluster models of nuclei. ==Death==