Scholars hailing from Pakistan that have gone abroad to make strides in all kinds of fields renew hope for the country, and highlight the potential of Pakistani students if nurtured correctly.
The recognition of Pakistani Scholars and Academics abroad plays an integral role in advancing and promoting the country’s educational and innovative agenda beyond borders.
It reveals the truth about the education system at home and unveils the capability and potential many Pakistanis possess, releasing a far more optimistic picture than that painted by Islamophobic tendencies post 9/11 and beyond the parameters of colonisation. Many such scholars are dispersed over (predominantly) UK and US universities and continue to encourage knowledge and intellect both abroad and at home.
Pakistani theoretical physicist, Mohammad Abdus Salam was the first Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize in science (for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory), and the second from an Islamic country to receive any Nobel Prize at all. Salam served as a professor at St John’s College, Cambridge in1954 and was invited to chair at Imperial College, London.
Salam is celebrated as founder and scientific father of mathematical and theoretical physics in Pakistan during his term as the chief scientific advisor to the president. As Science Advisor, he played an important role in Pakistan’s development of the peaceful use of nuclear energy, inter alia.
British – Pakistani Biochemist, Professor Muhammad Akhtar is emeritus professor at the University Of Southampton, UK. Prior to his role at Southampton, he was the Director General of the School of Biological Sciences, at the University of the Punjab, Pakistan. Akhtar dedicated several years (1859- 1863) to science research at Cambridge, Massachusetts before moving to the UK as a professor of BioChemistry.
He remained the head of his department from the years 1978 to 1991 and was a founding fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 1984 as well as the director of the SERC Centre for Molecular Recognition from 1990 till 1994. Akhtar obtained his Bachelors and subsequent Masters from the University Of Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan, followed by a PHd at Imperial College London, UK.
the article is originally published at global village space.