Pakistan’s celebrated scientist Prof Dr. Attaur Rahman has been conferred the highest scientific award of China in a ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
In China, the International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award is the prestigious national award in science and technology. Besides President Xi Jinping, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Nahgmana Alamgir Hashmi and senior Chinese government officials also attended the ceremony.
The award is granted to foreign scientists, engineers or organizations that have made important contributions to China’s bilateral or multilateral scientific and technological cooperation. The award for 2020 has been awarded to Prof Dr. Attaur Rahman in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of chemistry.
Previously, this award has been given to several leading scientists of the world including Nobel laureates in physics Dr. Carlo Rubbia and Dr. Zhores I Alferov. It is pertinent to mention here that China and Malaysia have also established major research centers in his name in recognition of his international eminence.
China and Malaysia established major research centres in the name of Prof Dr Attaur RahmanCurrently, Prof Attaur Rahman is serving as chairman of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Science and Technology, vice chairman on Prime Minister’s Task Force on Technology-Driven Knowledge-Economy, and co-chairman of the Task Force on Information Technology.
THE HIGHEST NATIONAL AWARD
However, Prof Attaur Rahman has also served the nation as a federal minister for science and technology, and chairman of the Higher Education Commission. He is the most decorated scientist of Pakistan having won four civil awards including Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Hilal-i-Imtiaz and Nishan-i-Imtiaz, the highest national award.
According to his profile, he obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Cambridge University in 1968. He has 1250 publications in several fields of organic chemistry including 775 research publications, 45 international patents, 69 chapters in books and 341 books published largely by major American and European publishers.
He is the editor-in-chief of eight Europe’s chemistry journals and is editor of the world’s leading encyclopedic series of volumes on natural product volumes. As many as 82 students have completed their Ph.D. degrees under his supervision. He has also been awarded various national and international awards in recognition of his contributions.
