VISIONARY: Dr Atta-ur-Rahman is credited with uplifting Pakistan’s Higher Education sector.

By Umer Nangiana

Pakistan Engineers Forum (PEF) Qatar has invited Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, a former federal minister and chairman of Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC), to speak about ‘Education, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Imperatives for Progress.’
Dr Rahman, often credited for his highly efficient and effective higher education programmes in Pakistan, will be speaking to the members of PEF on January 21 at Crowne Plaza Hotel.
As a federal minister of Science & Technology, and later Chairman, Higher Education Commission (2000–2008), Dr Rahman’s initiatives for the promotion of science and technology led to dramatic changes in the landscape of university education in Pakistan.
“Massive faculty development, access to scientific literature, strengthening of infrastructure, generous research funding, and reward to productive scientists are among the hundreds of new initiatives, which were vigorously initiated and pursued during his tenure,” said PEF in its statement.
The world’s top scientific journals such as Nature, as well as organisations like Royal Society (London), World Bank, USAID and UN Commission on Science, Technology and Development (UNCSTD) have paid glowing tributes to Pakistan’s success in higher education sector and declared them as models for other nations to follow, the statement added.
Dr Atta-ur-Rahman is a distinguished scholar and a scientist. He obtained his PhD in organic chemistry from Cambridge University (1968). He has 974 publications in several fields of organic chemistry, including 718 research publications, 37 international patents, 151 books and 68 chapters in books largely by major US and European publications.
He is the editor-in-chief of 12 European chemistry journals and the editor of Studies in Natural Product Chemistry, 43 volumes of which have been published by Elsevier Science Publishers (Netherlands) under his editorship during the last two decades. Eighty students have completed their PhD degrees under his supervision.
Dr Rahman is the first scientist from the Muslim world to have won the prestigious Unesco Science Prize (1999) in the 35-year-old history of the prize. He was elected as Fellow of Royal Society (London) in July 2006. He has been conferred honorary doctorate degrees by many universities including the degree of Doctor of Science (ScD) by the Cambridge University (UK) (1987), Honorary degree of Doctor of Education by Coventry University UK (2007), Honorary DSc degree by Bradford University (2010), Honorary PhD by Asian Institute of Technology (2010) and Honorary Doctorate from King of Malaysia (University of Technology, Mara, 2011).
Dr Rahman was elected Honorary Life Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge University, UK in 2007. Dr Rahman was conferred the TWAS Prize for Institution Building in Durban, South Africa in October 2009 in recognition of his contributions for bringing about revolutionary changes in the higher education sector in Pakistan.
“He is the most decorated scientist of Pakistan. The Austrian government has honoured him with its highest civil award (Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeischen am Bande 2007) in recognition of his eminent contributions,” said PEF.
He has been conferred four civil awards, including Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (1983), Sitara-i-Imtiaz (1991), Hilal-i-Imtiaz (1998), and the highest national civil award Nishan-i-Imtiaz (2002) in Pakistan.
He is president of Network of Academies of Sciences of Islamic Countries (NASIC), Foreign Fellow of Korean Academy of Sciences, and Foreign Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society. Dr Atta-ur-Rahman has won the International Scientific Corporation Award by Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) for building scientific collaborations between China and Pakistan (2014) and has been awarded prestigious ‘Einstein Professorship’ by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 2013.
Dr Rahman is the president of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. He was the Coordinator General of COMSTECH, an OIC Ministerial Committee comprising the 57 Ministers of Science & Technology from 57 OIC member countries from 1996 to 2012. He is Distinguished National Professor as well as Professor Emeritus at Karachi University, Pakistan.
PEF was founded in 1997, as a non-profit and non-political professional organisation for Pakistani engineers and other professionals in Qatar and elsewhere. The primary objective of the forum is to disseminate technical information by inviting guest speakers or through in-house presentations, develop programmes to deliver efficient and effective services and knowledge to members.
Dr Rahman’s lecture is part of the same series. PEF also facilitates learning through interaction with professionals from other disciplines, build communication and leadership skills besides providing a platform for Pakistani engineers for social and technical exchange in Qatar and elsewhere.


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