Computational chemistry: Dr Reaz Uddin first Pakistani to complete his Ph.D

A scientist of Karachi University, Dr Reaz Uddin, has become the first Pakistani to complete his Ph.D in the field of computational chemistry from the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi. An official of ICCBS said on Monday that Dr Reaz Uddin graduated in the year 2010 from HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, ICCBS.
He conducted his Ph.D research under the supervision of Dr Zaheer-ul-Haq, a faculty member at Dr Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, ICCBS. He further stated that Dr Reaz Uddin is the first ever PhD in the field of computational chemistry trained from any university of Pakistan. He pointed out that Dr Zaheer-ul-Haq, also, did his post doctorate in the said field from abroad, while two other Pakistani scientists also did their PhD in the same discipline from abroad. This makes Dr Reaz first scientist to acquire PhD from a Pakistani University.
Director ICCBS, Professor Dr M Iqbal Choudhary, realising the importance of computational chemistry particularly for his institute and for Pakistan in general, set up Computational Medicinal Chemistry Centre at the institute in year 2004. Dr Zaheer initiated a research lab at the centre and Dr Reaz was the first student to join his research group. Currently, the lab is an established research group with more than 14 researchers working in the field of computational chemistry.
During his PhD, Dr Zaheer received scholarship from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. The scholarship helped him to receive advance training from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), USA. He worked under the supervision of Dr Pavel A Petukhov at the UIC. His PhD work resulted in quality research articles in high reputed international journals. Currently, he is serving as Research Officer at Dr Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, ICCBS.