KARACHI: Three out of the four Pakistani students chosen to attend the 42nd International Chemistry Olympiad to be held in the Japanese capital of Tokyo in July this year are from Karachi.
An announcement here on Tuesday said that the visit has been arranged under the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Careers Programme. STEM is a joint venture of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Atomic Commission. The coordinator for the National Chemistry Talent Contest (NCTC) is Prof Dr Khalid Muhammad Khan from the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences at Karachi University.
The names of the successful candidates are: Hafiz Hassan Ali of Fazaia Degree College PAF Base Faisal, Karachi, Muhammad Anus of St Patricks High School, Karachi, Izhar Ali of the Aga Khan Higher Secondary School Karimabad, Karachi and Minahil Sana Qasim Khan of Beaconhouse, Defense Campus DHA, Lahore. The students are initially selected through a nationwide screening test from among applicants with at least 75 per cent marks in their SSC or O Level examinations, studying in FSc or A-Levels (Part I).
Subsequent selection is done through a series of training camps through a process of teaching and testing. Fifty top scorers in Chemistry are selected on the basis of their performance. They are further groomed and screened through a series of training camps and distance learning examinations that lead to the selection of four students for the International Chemistry Olympiad which will be held July 17 to 28 in Tokyo.
NSTC has also been able to secure admissions with scholarships for their higher studies at top ranking universities such as Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Caltech, McGill, University of Toronto and Oxford etc.
Published in the Express Tribune, May 12th, 2010.
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