| Biography: | Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from King’s College, University of Cambridge (1968). He has over 1333 international publications in various fields of organic chemistry (h-index 75, citations 35,639) (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bSBNj1MAAAAJ). He is the Editor of the world’s leading encyclopedic series of volumes on natural products, “Studies in Natural Product Chemistry,” 80 volumes of which have been published by Elsevier Science Publishers under his editorship during the last three decades. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) on July 14, 2006, won the prestigious UNESCO Science Prize (1999), and was elected Honorary Life Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge University, UK (2007). Prof. Rahman has been conferred honorary doctorate degrees by many leading world universities, including Cambridge University (UK) (1987), Coventry University (UK) (2007), Bradford University (UK) (2010), Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand) (2010), and the Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia (2011). Prof. Rahman is the most decorated scientist in Pakistan, having won 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). Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman was conferred the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) (Italy) Prize for Institution Building in October 2009 and the high civil award “Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeichen am Bande” by the Austrian government (2007) and the highest scientific award of China, “The International Science & Technology Cooperation Award” (2020). Prof. Rahman was appointed Academician (Foreign Member) of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015) and Fellow (Foreign Member) of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology. The leading Chinese University on Traditional Medicine in Changsha, Hunan, has established the “Academician Professor Atta-Ur-Rahman One Belt and One Road TCM Research Center” in October 2019, and the largest university in Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi, Mara, Malaysia (UiTM), has also established an institution entitled “Atta-Ur-Rahman Institute on Natural Product Discovery (AuRins)” in 2013. Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman was the Federal Minister for Science and Technology (March 14, 2000 – November 20, 2002), Federal Minister of Education (2002), and Chairman of the Higher Education Commission with the status of a Federal Minister from 2002-2008. Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman was the Coordinator General of COMSTECH, an OIC Ministerial Committee comprising 57 Ministers of Science & Technology from 57 OIC member countries from 1996 to 2012. He is presently Professor Emeritus at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, which is now internationally recognized as the UNESCO Center of Excellence. |
