A major international journal “Molecules” published by a leadinginternational publisher MDPI has decided to bring out a special issue tohonor the contributions of Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman to the development ofscience and technology in many countries around the world.
Spokesman of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences(ICCBS), University of Karachi on Monday said that the InternationalSociety of Nucleosides, Nucleotides & Nucleic Acids (IS3NA), the SpanishSociety of Medicinal Chemistry (SEQT) and the International Society ofHeterocyclic Chemistry (ISHC) are affiliated with Molecules.
The spokesman said that as Coordinator General COMSTECH Prof. Rahman helpedtens of thousands of young scientists in over 40 countries of the Islamicworld. As the Federal Minister of Science and Technology of Pakistan, helaid the foundations of Information technology in the country by spreadingthe internet rapidly across cities, towns and villages, by bringing theprices of bandwidth down from a ridiculous $87,000 per month for an E-1line to a few hundred dollars per month, by placing Pakistan’s firstsatellite PakSat 1 in space, he added.
He also transformed the mobile telephone industry by bringing in majorreforms including the Calling Part Pays regime that allowed citizens toreceive calls on Mobile Phones link withoutcharges. These led to a huge boost in the number of mobile phones from only300,000 phones in the year 2000, now to over 160 million phones.
As the Founding Chairman of the Higher Education Commission from 2002 to2008, the reforms he introduced completely transformed the higher educationsector. So huge was this impact, particularly in research, that Pakistanforged ahead of India in the number of international research publicationsper capita.
Prof. Atta-ur Rahman has been appointed as Chairman of Prime Minister’sTask Force on Science and Technology, Vice Chairman on Prime Minister’sTask Force on Technology-Driven Knowledge-Economy, and Co-Chair, Task Forceon Information Technology.
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Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from CambridgeUniversity (1968). He has 1232 publications in several fields of organicchemistry including 771 research publications, 45 international patents, 70chapters in books and, 346 books published largely by major U.S. andEuropean presses. He is the Editor-in-Chief of eight European Chemistryjournals.
The professor has also been accoladed with various internationalprestigious awards like UNESCO Science Prize, FRS, Friendship Award ofChina, and many others.
Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman is the most decorated scientist of Pakistan havingwon four civil awards by the government of Pakistan, includingTamgha-i-Imtiaz (1983), Sitara-i-Imtiaz (1991), Hilal-i-Imtiaz (1998), andthe highest national civil award Nishan-i-Imtiaz (2002).
