Int’l moot on “Physics and Contemporary Needs” beings at GCU

Lahore: A three-day international conference on “Physics and Contemporary Needs” Wednesday began at the Government College University, Lahore under the auspices of the university’s Physics Department, Centre for Advanced Studies in Physics (CASP), Rafi Chair and Higher Education Commission. Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran was the chief guest at the opening ceremony of conference which comprised of ten technical sessions and two poster exhibitions.

In his keynote address, Prof Mujahid Kamran said that Pakistan was a country of 182 million people but it had GDP of just 225 million dollars, however, the USA had population of 330 million but its GDP was 16,000 to 17,000 billion dollars, and the major reason for this disparity was due to a fact that the USA had over the 150 years consistently invested in the creation of new knowledge. “The USA invests five to seven percent of their GDP on higher education and two to three percent on research and development, but unfortunately Pakistan do not spends more than two percent on higher education, and 0.1 percent of GDP on research and development,” he added.

He said no change would come until or unless the government, at the highest level, understood that there was no shortcut to find an honorable place in the global arena and they had set their priorities right. He called upon the government to allocate four to five percent of GDP for higher education and to begin with at least one percent of GDP for research and development, saying that “then, the government would see the real difference.” He also highlighted that only 22 to 25 percent faculty in noted universities of Pakistan held the doctorate degree. However, he said that ideally, 90 percent of the faculty in universities must be PhD and it would certainly enhance the overall research output and production of new PhDs.

The PU vice chancellor congratulated GCU on completing 150 years of excellence, saying GCU was the pride of Pakistan, and Ravians had more civil awards to their credit than the students of any other educational institution of the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman highlighted a dire need for strong collaboration of academia with industry for the creation of new knowledge. He also mentioned that Pakistan had only one Nobel Laureate in the field of Physics who as an eminent Old Ravian, Prof Dr Abuds Salam. He also said that GCU CASP had played a very vital role in development of Physics in the country, adding that more than 60 experts who were the part of the team which carried out nuclear explosions in 1998 had been educated and trained at the Government College, Lahore. The vice chancellor said that the proceedings of this conference on physics would be published in one month time as per the best international standards and would be forwarded to the abstracting agencies.

In his opening remarks, Dr Muhammad Zakria Butt, the conference chairman and Professor Rafi Chair, said that the importance of physics was quite evident from its utilization in numerous areas ranging from home appliances to space exploration. He expressed a great pleasure that three Japanese physicists, this year, had received the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the new energy-efficient and environment friendly – the blue light – which had revolutionized the illumination technology. He proudly said that he had 50-year-long affiliation with GCU, adding that he had attended the centenary celebrations of GC as student in 1964 and 125 years celebrations as Director CASP in 1989.

GCU Physics Department Chairperson Prof Dr Riaz Ahmad said that about 131 research papers would be presented at the conference which was also attended seven foreign physicists from Germany, China, UK, Austria and Brazil. He said that besides foreign experts, 300 eminent Physicists from Pakistan were also attended the conference.