International conference: Experts for need-based localised research

The conference was organised by AIOU chemistry department and the Higher Education Commission

ISLAMABAD:

The country needs indigenous solutions and cannot continue to import research and apply alien scientific ideas that do not set well with local needs.

This was said by Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University VC Dr Javed Akram on Monday at the two-day international conference on recent trends in chemistry.

The conference was organised by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU)’s chemistry department and the Higher Education Commission.

The pharmaceutical industry badly needs this sort of local innovation, he stressed.

“Right now it is only a reformulation industry and can barely produce new chemicals derived from local products and research,” he said

Chemists, researchers and faculty members from various universities presented their research papers to enhance collaboration among other scientific disciplines and organisations.

Akram added SZABMU will sign an MoU with AIOU and the two institutes will issue a research journal with applicable medical and chemical.

AIOU Faculty of Sciences Dean Dr Naghmana Rashid said the conference is first of its kind at the university.

“Chemistry nowadays is not just another science, it has a direct relationship with quality of life,” she said.

“Research for the sake of life should take precedence over research just for the sake of research,” commented AIOU VC Dr Shahid Siddiqui.

Research should not be done in isolation with requirements of society, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2015.