What no one told you about Pakistan

Malaysia to set up center to honour Dr Atta-ur-Rehman

A top Malaysian university will set up a research institute to honour prominent Pakistani scientist Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman.

The “Atta-ur-Rahman Institute of Natural Product Discovery (RiND)” will be inaugurated at the University of Teknologi Mara (UiTM) on March 4, 2013, during an International Conference on Natural Products, where Rehman is being invited as a guest of honour to deliver the keynote speech for the “Jack Cannon Lecture”.

The UiTM had awarded Rehman an honorary doctorate degree in 2011 and RiND is another accolade for the scientist.

“The RiND will will work on full-fledged PhD programs in fields such as organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, neuroscience, proteomics, pharmacology, pharmacognosy and molecular medicine with a special focus on the bioactive constituents of terrestrial plants and marine sources,” Rehman said while speaking to Dawn.com. (Complete news)

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Young technologists shine at 13th Softcom

Caffeine, adrenaline and ambition fueled the three-day annual Softcom at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute in Topi, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The event took off on November 16, Friday and ran until November 18, Sunday afternoon, hosting students from several universities across Pakistan. (Complete news)

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Moon Conquered! A Pakistani newspaper, Daily News honouring Neil Armstrong and others on their successful Lunar landing on July 21, 1969.

I just realised last night after returning to Lahore that I forgot to scan pages of a Pakistani newspaper archive I have from 60s and 70s. Really hope I have enough time on a next visit to Islamabad that I can take pictures of more stuff from those newspapers and share how our parents had a lot of fun before things got to us in Pakistan :)

*Thanks to my brother Salman for taking this picture. (via umalik)

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The first men on the moon land in Pakistan. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (the first men to land on the moon), arrived in Karachi in early 1970 during their tour of South Asia. Here they are seen being greeted by an enthusiastic crowd just outside the Karachi Airport. –Picture courtesy LIFE.

RIP Neil Armstrong (via haceeb)

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GRUM, WORLD’S THIRD-LARGEST BOTNET, KNOCKED DOWN - thanks to a company founded by Pakistani entrepreneur Ashar Aziz

I am glad to announce that, after three days of effort, the Grum botnet has finally been knocked down. All the known command and control (CnC) servers are dead, leaving their zombies orphaned. How it all happened is a long story, but I would like to summarize it for you. (complete blog post about this, news item)

For more about Ashar Aziz read Sramana Mitra’s interview with him here

My story begins in Pakistan where I was born and grew up. I was born in Karachi and I grew up in Islamabad. I still maintain a residence in that part of the world. When I was very young, one of my cousins told me I was smart and that there was a technical school out there called MIT which was the best in the world. I was 13 at the time, and I did not know how to get there. I decided to pursue that opportunity, but the way I went about it was a bit odd.

I did not know the address, so I went to the American Center where they told me I could not go there for undergraduate school, only grad school. That was completely untrue. There was a scholarship for a school in Turkey, and I heard that if you went there then you could go to MIT. I decided to try for that scholarship, and I ended up winning it. I went there en route to MIT because I thought that was the only way to get there. True enough, there were two people who went to MIT from that school every year as transfer students. I managed to be one of those two, and transferred to MIT as a junior.

I also had always had a desire to be an entrepreneur.

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Pakistan100 Entrepreneurs at AllWorld Network in Washington DC

Growing at 55% a year
Employ over 41,000 people
82% plant to found another company in next two years
50% have helped employees start businesses

Read about these success stories here, or check how it has been covered in the media here. You can also read a complete report on Pakistan100 here.

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Gurmani Foundation Gives LUMS PKR One Billion Endowment

The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has received a most generous gift of PKR. 1 Billion (Rs. 1,000,000,000) from the Gurmani Foundation which will be used to set up an endowment for supporting financial assistance programmes for the most deserving students and for a range of scholarly activities. This is the largest single gift ever received by LUMS and may also be the single largest gift ever given to an educational institution in Pakistan. (complete article)

People of the State of Bahawalpur continue to do charity which no one else can match up with. Respect+

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Swat engineer claims to produce electricity with water

While the country witnesses its worst energy crisis, a 37-year-old self-taught mechanical engineer from Swat claims to have a solution.

After 20 years of research, Rehan Aziz Farooqi, has invented a unique power generator that runs solely on water, and, wait for it, the design can be used to allow any engine that runs on petrol, diesel or green gas to use water as fuel.

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Astronomy night: Attendees get inspiration, information

Students, academics and families attended the Astronomy Night at NUST on Monday night to gaze at the sky. However, Brig. Mubashirul Haq Abbasi’s preceding lecture on astronomy proved more educational and interesting for the attendees as the two telescopes — Meade ETX-125 and Orion EON — were a bit of let down for some as the magnification did not meet expectations.

Electrical engineer Adil and his family said that they had recently seen a telescope in Lahore that showed eruptions on the sun’s surface in much higher detail, and were underwhelmed by what was visible through the telescopes at NUST. However, Adil commended the university’s effort, “It is a good excuse to do something educational and fun with the family.” (Source)

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A Brilliant Pakistani (Ishrat Bano)

She was selected for the UNESCO-L’Oreal Fellowship This is highly prestigious award which is designed to identify and reward fifteen committed and talented young scientists, from all over the world and allowed her to work in University of Cambridge, UK. She has been selected for this award from around the world.

She attended the 60^thNoble Laureates Meeting Lindau, Germany, June 2010.

Each of the selected candidates belongs to the budding scientific elite of their respective countries, and has passed a multi-stage international selection procedure.

The Council workgroup then makes its final selection from this pool of Best Talents, examining 1,500 profiles for every Meeting before finally choosing the top applicants to receive an invitation to Lindau. The Lindau Meetings contribute to the establishment of international networks of scientific excellence.

She was selected for the Robert Bosch Stiftung Fellow, Germany, 16 July,

2010. Knowledge dissemination, targeted youth training and support for international

networking in science gathering for excellent young scientists from around the world.

IGNITE entrepreneurship Programme, Judge Buisness School, University of Cambridge, UK, June 2011. She has selected for the EPSRC, UK from a pool of 15 thousands candidates IGNITE fellowship.

Einstein Young Scholar Award, Germany, 8 Nov, 2010. She was chosen by the

Einstein Foundation Berlin as one of the young scientists from the UK to participate

as an ‘Einstein Young Scholar’ in the 2010 Falling Walls Science Conference on Future Breakthroughs in Science and Society.

Some of her links are as follows,

http://www.hec.gov.pk/InsideHEC/Divisions/HRD/Scholarships/Stories/Pages/IshratBano.aspx

http://www.unesco.org.uk/four_of_the_2009_unesco-l’oreal_international_fellowships_winners_to_study_at_uk_institutions

http://www.diversitycareers.com/articles/pro/09-junjul/newsviews.htm#and

http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx?direct1=00008&direct2=00008/00003&direct3=00008/00003/00002&direct4=00008/00003/00002/00011&direct5=00008/00003/00002/00011/00003/00003

http://portal.unesco.org/science/en/ev.php-URL_ID=7455&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/djf/people/ishrat%20bano.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ0-ckvA_5M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQg8pPDm29s