Postdoctoral research & development: Scholars return to face uncertain future
Four Pakistani scholars have completed their postdoctoral studies from different foreign universities under the Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholar programme.
HEC scholar Dr Jan Muhammad Mari, an assistant professor at Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, completed his postdoctoral studies from Imperial College, London under the supervision of Dr Denis J Right, a well-known scientist and researcher on plant protection in the United Kingdom.
Dr Jan has specialised in plant protection and integrated pest management so that he could contribute to the development of solutions for this problem. He continued his research in the same field during a fellowship in the UK. During his postdoctoral research, he worked as a team member of the trans-disciplinary research group and learned several new techniques that he wants to apply in his future career.
Lahore College for Women University Assistant Professor Dr Farah Khan has recently returned to Pakistan after completing an HEC-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Molecular Genetics at Ohio State University in the US.
She completed her studies under the supervision of Dr Biao Ding, a renowned virologist and editor of many international impact-factored journals. Her thesis investigated the behaviour of PSTVd Loop 26 as an RNA structural ‘motif’ regulating intercellular trafficking in Nicotiana benthamiana, part of the tobacco family.
Dr Muhammad Iqbal Chawla completed postdoctoral studies from the University of Southampton, UK, under the supervision of Prof Ian Talbot. His project re-examined Lord Mountbatten’s role at the time of Pakistan’s independence and partition.
The project grew out of his doctoral work, which involved reappraising Lord Wavell’s period as Viceroy of India. Besides submitting five papers to international research Journals in the UK, USA and Australia, Dr Chawla will produce a full length book which will provide a more nuanced understanding of Mountbatten’s role as Viceroy regarding Muslim interests than has existed hitherto.
Dr Masood Anwar completed his postdoctoral research in statistics from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Windsor, Canada under the supervision of Dr S Ejaz Ahmed, a well-known statistician.
Dr Anwar has developed different methods for the analysis of data in his research and has written programmes in R language. He developed a programme for estimating the common population correlation coefficient for independent samples drawn from bivariate normal populations, which has applications in biostatistics.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2011.
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