228/25 Professor Dr. Atta Ur Rahman

Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman is the most decorated scientist of Pakistan, having won four civil awards, including Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (1983), a national honor recognizing significant contributions, Sitara-i-Imtiaz (1991), Hilal-i-Imtiaz (1998), and the highest civil award, Nishan-i-Imtiaz (2002), which signifies exceptional service to the nation. Professor Rahman obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from King College, University of Cambridge (1968). He has over 1559 international publications in several fields of organic chemistry (h index 83, citations 44,474), including 86 international patents, 70 book chapters, 875 research publications, and 391 books (11 authored and 380 edited).  

Prof. Rahman was elected as a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society (London) on 14th July 2006, and thus became the first scientist from the Islamic World to be elected a Fellow of this 370-year-old Society based on research carried out within an Islamic country. He won the prestigious UNESCO Science Prize (1999) and was elected Honorary Life Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge University, UK (2007). Prof. Rahman has been conferred honorary doctorate degrees by many leading world universities, including: 
 

1. Cambridge University (UK) (1987), 
2. Coventry University (UK) (2007), 
3. Bradford University (UK) (2010), 
4. Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand) (2010) and 
5. University of Technology Mara, (Malaysia) (2011). 

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 Ehrenzeischen 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. 

Many Research Centers in China, Malaysia, and Pakistan have been named in his honour. 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. The prominent science and technology university in Malaysia, Universiti Technologi Mara (UiTM), has also established the “Atta-ur-Rahman Institute on Natural Product Discovery (AuRins)” in 2013. Research Centres have also been named in his honour at NUST, Islamabad, the University of Karachi, and other universities.

Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman was the Federal Minister for Science and Technology (14th March, 2000 – 20th November, 2002), Federal Minister of Education (2002), and Founding 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 the 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.