Eminent Pakistani scientist to inaugurate UN conference

KARACHI, Nov 1 (APP): Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, an eminent Pakistani
scientist and former federal minister of Science and Technology, will inaugurate the United Nations international conference on “Harnessing Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for Sustainable Development” in Bangkok on November 2.
An official of the International Centre for Chemical and Biological
Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, said here on Sunday that the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has organised this global event.
He said that Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, founding Chairman of Higher Education
Commission, will also deliver an opening address, in which he will highlight the need for professionally conducted “Foresight” exercises, such as the one that was conducted under his guidance during 2004-2006.
“The conference will be attended by experts and policymakers who will
review the road map that countries must develop to transition to strong knowledge based economies.”
He said that this event was being organised as part of the Fourth
Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Week, November 2-6, 2015.
“ESCAP is the regional development arm of the United Nations for the
Asia-Pacific region. It comprises 53 Member States and 9 Associate Members, with a geographical scope that stretches from Turkey in the west to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati in the east, and from the Russian Federation in the north to New Zealand in the south.
The region is home to 4.1 billion people, or two-third of the world’s
population. This makes ESCAP the most comprehensive of the United Nations five regional commissions, he added.
Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman has 1,002 publications in several fields of organic
chemistry including 724 research publications, 37 international patents, 68 chapters in books and 173 books published largely by major U.S. and European presses.
He is the editor-in-chief of eight European chemistry journals and
editor of the world’s leading encyclopedic series of volumes on natural products “Studies in Natural Product Chemistry”. Its 47 volumes have been published under his editorship during the last two decades. Eighty two students have completed their Ph.D. degrees under his supervision.

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