Academic affairs: UoP appoints vice chancellor at last

Professor Dr Rasul Jan was earlier serving as the VC University of Malakand.

PESHAWAR: Professor Dr Rasul Jan has been appointed as the vice chancellor of the University of Peshawar (UoP) for a period of four years. The university had been operating under an acting vice chancellor for nearly 10 months.

Professor Qibla Ayaz was serving as the acting vice chancellor since March, 2012. He was replaced by Dr Jan, whose appointment letter was issued from the Governor House on Thursday.

Before his appointment, Dr Jan was serving as the vice chancellor of the University of Malakand, Chakdara, since April 2008.

Hailing from Ningolai village of Kabal in Swat district, Dr Jan did his masters from UoP’s department of chemistry in 1976. In 1979, he completed his MPhil from the same department.

The educationist left for Ireland in 1980 for his PhD, which he completed in two years. Jan returned to Pakistan in 1982 after completing his doctorate degree.



He then went back to Ireland for a three-year post-doctorate fellowship sponsored by the European Economic Committee at University College Dublin.

Dr Jan joined the UoP in 1985 as an assistant professor at the department of chemistry. In 1999, he was transferred to the department of environmental sciences which he was asked to head.

In 2001, Dr Jan was re-transferred to the department of chemistry and in 2003 the professor went to the US for a one-year Fulbright fellowship at New Mexico University. In 2005, he was made a visiting scientist at the Institute of Bio-Designing, Zonal State University, USA. In June the same year, he was posted as the department of chemistry’s chairman at the said university.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2013.