Farooq Azam (born in Lahore, Pakistan ) is a researcher in the field of marine microbiology.
He is a distinguished professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego.
In addition to introducing the concept of the microbial loop Azam is responsible for bringing conceptual advances in several areas of marine microbiology.
This area of research is now pursued more actively in the field at large with the introduction of advanced digital and single cell imaging.
He and then graduate student Kay Bidle also showed that the dissolution of diatom frustules was accelerated by bacteria, as opposed to being a strictly abiotic process as previously thought.