International recognition: Five students to represent Pakistan at Asian Science Camp

Science students from across Asia will get to talk to top scholars including five Nobel laureates.

ISLAMABAD:

Some of Pakistan’s finest young minds are looking forward to interacting with their peers and Nobel laureates in Japan during the last week of August.

Selected after a merit-based test and interview process by the National Centre for Physics (NCP), five Pakistani intermediate-level students are going to represent the country in the Asian Science Camp (ASC) 2013 being held in Tsukuba, Japan, from August 25 to August 30.

The Pakistani students will be among 200 high school and college science students from all over Asia at the ASC — an annual event, held since 2005, that aims to bring together young science students from Asia and to put them in discussions with top scholars — and they will get to hear lectures by five Nobel laureates, among other experts.

“Apart from the academic learning, we are looking forward to the cultural exchange and interaction with students from other Asian countries,” said Mahnoor Fatima Sherazi, one of the five Pakistani students attending the camp. “We are going to present our international counterparts with a message of peace and friendship from Pakistan.”

Sherazi, a second-year pre-medical student at the Fazaia Inter College, will be accompanied by Mahnoor Malik, from the same school, Amir Salar Pirzada from Beaconhouse School System Peshawar and Hamza Afzal Khattak and Saim Shujaat, from Cadet College Hasan Abdal at the ASC 2013. Aslam Baig, the head of Laser Plasma Physics at NCP, will lead the Pakistani contingent.

The students are currently undergoing a three-day orientation at the NCP where experts are preparing students with important concepts related to Physics and Chemistry that might come in handy when they reach the camp.

“I’m excited about this great opportunity,” Shujaat, a pre-engineering student, said. “It will help me expand my horizons and decide about a career in science.”

NCP Director Collaborations and Academic Activities Dr Riffat Qureshi said the centre contacted schools and colleges across Pakistan to nominate their top students for the science camp. Around 40 students from different institutions responded to the call, Qureshi said. The final five were selected on merit after a written test and interview at NCP.

NCP Director-General Hamid Saleem said the Indian contingent to the ASC, made up of 35 students, is funded by the Indian government.

On the other hand, three of the Pakistani students are paying for their travel expenditures. Two students, Khattak and Pirzada, managed to win an ASC fellowship to sponsor their travel while Baig’s travel costs are being supported by the Pakistan Science Foundation, he said

Baig said Pakistan has participated in the ASC twice before, in 2009 and 2011, and three of the 2011 Pakistani participants are pursuing science studies at foreign institutions at present. “Our limited resources sometimes do not allow us to reach out to every single school and college,” he said. “But for next year, we are trying to bring at least 100 students for a pre-ASC at the NCP so more brilliant students get a chance to compete for a spot on the list of finalists.”

“We want the next generation to change the situation the country finds itself in at present, and that is only possible with the help of progress in science and technology,” Saleem said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd, 2013.