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Islamabad: HEC scholar Muhammad Arshad has won Best Poster Award during a competition held at the School of Chemistry, University of Bath, England, UK in which 30 postgraduate students participated.
The title of the poster was “Highly Selective Sulfur Ylide Mediated Asymmetric Epoxidations and Aziridinations Using an Inexpensive Chiral Sulfide; Applications to the Synthesis of Quinine and Quinidine.” Quinine is a well-known anti-malarial drug and its synthesis is considered a challenging task.
Arshad, who was pursuing his PhD under Split PhD Programme, has returned to Pakistan and is working as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Chemistry, University of the Punjab in Lahore under Interim Placement for Fresh PhDs Programme of HEC.
Arshad’s field of research is more relevant to the medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical industry. He has also written two articles in reputed journals of England which have been highlighted as a significant contribution in Chemistry both by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and American Chemical Society (ACS) in their monthly magazines.
His supervisor Prof. Varinder K. Aggarwal, commenting on his research work remarked, “I received the best referee’s comments I have ever had for any paper that I have submitted. The referees were very supportive of the work and recognised its importance in the field of sulfur-ylide mediated asymmetric epoxidation.”
Under HEC’s Split PhD Programme, Pakistani scholars have the opportunity to undertake a part of their PhD at Pakistani higher educational institutions and some part in reputed foreign universities from academically advanced countries. So far, 86 scholars have been awarded scholarship under the scheme, out of which 52 scholars have returned and joined their parent organizations.
For more information, contact:
Aayesha Ikram
Director (Media)
Higher Education Commission
Sector H-9, Islamabad
Tel: 90402404, 90402412
Email: aikram@hec.gov.pk
Website: www.hec.gov.pk