Chemistry year: GCU hosts research poster show

Three-day crystallography workshop planned next.

LAHORE:

Some 95 science research projects were displayed at the Government College University (GCU) in an inter-university poster exhibition on Monday.

The competition was held to highlight the quality of research carried out in Pakistan in chemistry.

Students from the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU); the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST); and the Quaid-i-Azam University participated in the exhibition.

The topics included metal-based drug development, DNA analysis, forensic explosive analysis, pesticides, nano-materials, bioprocess, oxidative stress studies, pharmaceutical analysis, bio-diesel production and anti-microbial actives.

GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Khaleequr Rehman said that such events gave students an opportunity to exhibit their research and enhance their presentation skills.

Ravian Forensic Society Advisor Dr M Akhtar Farrukh said that the United Nations had declared 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry. He said the exhibition was GCU’s third activity organised in celebration of the chemistry year.

He said that GCU’s Chemistry Department would also a three-day international workshop on crystallography and nano-materials in October.

Muhammad Arsalan from the FUUAST won the first prize for his research on Tunability of Physical Properties of Zncuce Films with Copper Concentration, GCU’s Kenneth Nazir was second for his research on Acrachne Racemosa: A potent source for natural antioxidants, and Maymoona Mehboob, also from GCU, was third for her research on Fabrication, Characterisation and Application of Aluminium Alloys.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2011.