Prof Atta-ur-Rahman added to ‘Wall of Scientists’ in Switzerland

Prof Atta-ur-Rahman has been added to the famous “Wall of Scientists” at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Eidgenossische Technioshe Hochschule (ETH), a leading Swiss engineering university.

“Prof Atta-ur-Rahman is the first scientist from the Muslim world to be conferred this singular honourm,” said the spokesman for the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, on Friday.

He said that only the world’s top scientists were selected for this wall, while Prof Atta-ur-Rahman was one of them.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Eidgenossische Technioshe Hochschule, is a leading engineering university based in Zurich, Switzerland, and ranked among the top 12 universities of the world by the Times Higher Education World Universities Rankings.

Karachi University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi and Prof Dr M. Iqbal Choudhary, director of the ICCBS and COMSTECH coordinator general, congratulated Prof Atta-ur-Rahman, and said that this selection was an honour not only for the university but also for the nation.

Prof Rahman was also recently selected among the most influential Muslims of the world in the encyclopedic volume entitled, “The Muslim 500 - The World’s 500 most Influential Muslims” (2023 Edition) by the Jordan-based Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre.

Prof Rahman is the most decorated scientist of Pakistan having won four civil awards by the government of Pakistan -- Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (1983), Sitara-e-Imtiaz (1991), Hilal-e-Imtiaz (1998), and the highest national civil award Nishan-e-Imtiaz.

He was elected as Fellow of prestigious Royal Society (London) (2006) and Honorary Life Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge University, UK (2007). Prof Rahman won the UNESCO Science Prize (1999).

The Austrian government honoured him with its high civil award (“Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeischen am Bande”) 2007. He was also conferred on the highest national award by President Xi Jinping of China. Prof Rahman has been conferred on honorary doctorate degrees by many top foreign universities, including the Cambridge University (UK) (1987), Coventry University UK (2007), Bradford University (2010), Asian Institute of Technology Thsiland (2010) and University of Technology, Mara, Malaysia (2011). Research centers have been established in his honour in China and Malaysia.