By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan’s renowned scientist Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman has been conferred the ‘China International Science and Technology Cooperation Award’, for the year 2020 which is the highest scientific award of China.
According to Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson, the award was conferred on Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman by the President of China on Friday in Beijing.
Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman has received this award in recognition of his contributions in the field of chemistry and the numerous strong collaborations that he has developed with China in the fields of organic chemistry, genetics, pharmacology, agricultural sciences, virology, nanotechnology and other emerging areas.
This prestigious award has previously been given to several leading scientists of the world including the Nobel Laureates, Dr. Carlo Rubbia (Nobel Prize in physics, 1984) and Dr. Zhores I. Alferov (Nobel Prize in physics, 2000).
Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman is the most decorated scientist of Pakistan having won 4 Civil Awards including Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Hilal-i-Imtiaz and the highest national award Nishan-i-Imtiaz.Currently, Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman is serving as Chairman of 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, Task Force on Information Technology. He has also served the nation as a Federal Minister of Science and Technology, and Founding Chairman of Higher Education Commission.
He obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Cambridge University in1968. 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 U.S. and European presses. He is the Editor-in-Chief of eight European Chemistry journals. He is Editor of the world’s leading encyclopedic series of volumes on natural products “Studies in Natural Product Chemistry” 62 volumes of which have been published under his Editorship during the last two decades. As many as 82 students have completed their Ph.D. degrees under his supervision.
