Nurturing the Thinking Mind: The OIC Dilemma in Science, Technology & Innovation - Dr. Shaukat Khan

Описание: Prof. Khan started the laser programme in Pakistan in 1969 in the PAEC (Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission), where he was actively engaged in research, teaching and production. His research included atomic and molecular spectroscopy, ultrafast high voltage switching, and design and development of lasers from the UV to the IR. As Visiting Scientist at CERN, Geneva, 1999-2001, he helped design the laser-based detector position monitoring system for the CMS system, where 40 Pakistani laser systems are now operational. Laser systems have also been exported to several countries in S.E. Asia and the EU. The laser group has now evolved into the National Institute of Lasers and Optics (NILOP) and hosts over 500 persons. He has over 50 publications in Journals and Conferences. The ‘RE Profile of the OIC countries’ was prepared in 2018.
A Rhodes Scholar, with BSc and DPhil degrees from Oxford University. A Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, he is a recipient of the President’s Medal, and the Gold Medal for Technology from the Pakistan Academy of Sciences.

After retiring as DG/Chief Scientist at the PAEC, he worked as Member of the Planning Commission of Pakistan from 2005-08 and was responsible for national programmes in higher education, science and technology, and industry. He authored the Vision 2030 foresight exercise in 2007. He has been Rector of GIKI, and a member of the team which prepared the National Industrial Policy, 2011 (timelines, costs, and necessary structural reforms). Activity Document for the First OIC Summit on Science and Technology held in Astana, Kazakhstan, was circulated in September 2017, (its theme was ‘Nurture the Thinking Mind; Build a Scientific Culture’). The Implementation Mechanism has been approved. He has also advised UNDP, Pakistan, on ‘Making People Employable’ (2019).

He was a member of the President’s Steering Committee, which resulted in the establishment of the Higher Education Commission, and the National Nanotechnology Commission, which helped start ‘seed’ activities in this field in Pakistani Universities. His current interests include the emerging relation between science and society and the role of technology in development, leveraging the energy crisis for industrial development, and reforming secondary education in Pakistan.

Apart from regular lectures at the National Management School on the use of ST&I in ‘Managing Water Issues’, ‘Role of Technology and Innovation for Economic Growth’, he has been speaking in various Pakistani and International Conferences on topics such as the ‘Economics and Politics of Energy Transit’, ‘Pakistan’s Energy Options’, and ‘Nuclear Energy Prospects in South Asia’, with a chapter on 'Technology Status, and Costs of Renewable Energy’ (Powering Pakistan’; Ed: Hathaway & Kugelman, Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington, OUP, 2009).