Research work: Training course for scientists from December 3 to 14

NIAB to teach advanced research techniques.

FAISALABAD:

The Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) will organise the 40th Postgraduate Training Course on nuclear and other advanced techniques in agricultural and biological research from December 3 to 14.

Course organiser Dr Shahnaz Adeeb Khanum said the NIAB, an establishment of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), was primarily a research institution. She said the NIAB was well-equipped and had a qualified staff of 80 scientists, 29 of them holding PhD degrees. She said the NIAB also maintained a liaison with other PAEC establishments involved in research and development activities at home and abroad.

She said the NIAB conducted an annual postgraduate course on the application of advanced techniques in biological and agricultural research in which students, researchers and teachers participated.

Dr Khanum said the two-week course had been designed to inform the participants of theoretical and practical aspects of nuclear and other advanced techniques. It also includes lectures in specialised subjects and experiments in some of the ongoing research projects of the institute.

She said 39 such courses had been organised so far, which were attended by over 900 scientists from other organisations in addition to new entrants to the institute. She said the course outline would include nuclear techniques in radiation and radioisotopes, detection and measurement of radiations and radioactivity, health hazards and safety precautions, application research, spectroscopy in ultraviolet, visible and infrared light, emission and atomic absorption, and separation techniques in thin layer, column, paper, gas, liquid and high performance liquid chromatography, electrophoresis and centrifugation.

Dr Khanum said a limited number of applicants had been selected for participation in the course. Certificates would also be awarded to the participants after evaluating their training.

She said the nominating institutions or participants would themselves bear the cost of travel and stay in Faisalabad. However, the NIAB will help them secure accommodation while intra-city transport will be provided free of cost.

She said an organising committee comprising NIAB Director Dr Javed Akhtar and herself had been formed to hold the training course. She said they had hired qualified faculty including Dr Nayyer Iqbal, Dr M Saeed Akhtar, Dr Altaf Hussain, Faqir Hussain, Dr Muhammad Hamid, Dr Khalid Mahmood, Dr Nighat Sarwar, Zafar Iqbal, Dr Tariq Mahmood Shah, Dr Nasim Akhtar, Mujahid Hussain, Dr Rubina Arshad, Dr Uzma Maqbool, Dr Amjad Hameed, Rehana Kausar, Jafar Hussain and Sabir Ali Sabir to the institute.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2012.