In a communication with the AIT President Prof. Said Irandoust, Prof.
Rahman said that he is “greatly honored and is most grateful” to AIT
for deciding to bestow this honor on him.
Earlier, Prof. Rahman had delivered the graduation address on the
occasion of the 99th graduation ceremony of AIT on 19 December 2003.
Delivering the graduation address, Prof Rahman had described AIT as a
“wonderful center” which is known worldwide for its excellence. He
said:
have this wonderful center, the Asian Institute of Technology, which is
known worldwide for its excellence and it has been a pleasure, sir, to
develop stronger cooperation with this institute with which Pakistan
has been involved right from the very beginning and I look forward to
growing strengthening between Pakistan and the Asian Institute of
Technology in the years to come.”
The complete graduation address can be read at this link.
Prof. Rahman was the Federal Minister for Science and Technology (14
March 2000 – 20 November 2002) and Federal Minister of Education (2002)
in the Government of Pakistan. He has also worked as Chairman of the
Higher Education Commission (HEC) in Pakistan with the status of a
Federal Minister between 2002-2008.
He was conferred honorary doctorate degree of Doctor of Science
(D.Sc.) by the University of Cambridge (UK) in 1987 and an honorary
degree of Doctor of Education by Coventry University UK in November
2007. He was elected Honorary Life Fellow of
Kings College, University of Cambridge, UK in 2007. He won the
prestigious
UNESCO Science Prize ( 1999) and was elected as Fellow of
Royal Society (London) in 2006.
He is President of Network of Academies of Sciences of Islamic
Countries (NASIC) and the
Vice-President (Central and South Asia) of the Academy of Sciences for
the Developing World (TWAS) Council,
and
Foreign Fellow of Korean Academy of Sciences.
The Austrian government also honoured him with its highest civilian
award (Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeichen am Bande" (2007) in recognition of
his contributions. The Government of Pakistan has conferred 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), on him.
A Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Cambridge University (1968), he has
over 830 publications in leading international, including 654 research
publications, 18 patents, 99 books and 59 chapters in books published
by major U.S. and European presses.
Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman is presently the Coordinator General of COMSTECH, an Organisation of
Islmaic Conference (OIC) Ministerial Committee comprising the 57
Ministers of Science and Technology from OIC member countries.