KU becomes hot spot for astrophysicists at first national space conference

ISPA’s Dr Jawed Iqbal hopes the event will bring together academics and investors.

KARACHI: The events marking the World Space Week 2012 were in full swing at the Karachi University on Monday. Provincial education minister Pir Mazharul Haq, dispelled the impression that the goal of space science was to send people to the moon. The minister was attending the inaugural ceremony of the country’s first national conference on space sciences.

The university’s Institute of Space and Planetary Astrophysics is (ISPA) jointly organising the two-day conference with Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco), the Higher Education Commission and the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET).

The conference’s convener and head of ISPA, Dr Jawed Iqbal, said that the event hoped to bring together academics, entrepreneurs and investors and identify opportunities for international collaboration and foreign investment in space technology, as part of Pakistan’s Space Vision 2040.

The varsity’s vice chancellor, Dr Mohammad Qaiser, founding director of ISPA Prof. Dr Jawaid Quamar and Suparco secretary Arshad Hussain Siraj were also present on the occasion.

Among the speakers at the conference was Dr Asghar Qadir, who was not really sure if he was qualified enough to speak on space technologies like remote sensing. “I deal with exotic astronomical objects like black holes and neutron stars,” said Qadir, who is a professor at NUST’s Centre for Advanced Mathematics and Physics. The astrophysicist said that what most people considered to be space science was actually space technology. “Science deals with the wonder of the universe, while technology uses science for human betterment,” he said. The paper he presented in the conference discussed the current status of cosmology.

A large number of students were also present in the auditorium as experts gave their presentations. However, some of them felt that the sessions were not as technical as they would have liked them to be. “The inaugural ceremony was full of unremarkable speeches,” said Junaid Javed, a third-year student at KU’s geography department. “I hope other sessions will be more interesting, as we can understand technical terms.”

Scientists and researchers are going to present 36 papers during nine thematic sessions that have been organised for the two-day event. Seminars scheduled for the conference’s second day (today) are going to take place at SSUET.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2012.