Shaukat Hameed Khan

Shaukat Hameed Khan (Born: 4 September 1941; Urdu: ڈاکٹر شوکت حمید خان), (PP, D.Phil, FPAS), is a Pakistani nuclear physicist. He previously had served as the rector of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI).^[1][2] Khan has been associated with GIKI since its inception and served as a member of the Board of Governors till early 2013. He is a Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences.^[3] Khan previously worked for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), where he retired as Chief Science Officer (CSO) in 2005.

Khan has made numerous contribution to the field of Laser physics, and is an author of two books, which are heavily emphasized to the field of Laser sciences. Khan has also made important research and contribution in the fields of laser produced plasmas; Ultrafast High Voltage Switching; Spectroscopy, laser isotope separation, and precision measurement with lasers.

Biography

Khan was born in Lahore British Punjab to an ethnic Pathan family. Khan did his matriculation from Gordon College where he also received his pre-science diploma from there in 1957. The same year, he was admitted in Punjab University and received his B.Sc.(Hons) in Physics in 1961. In 1962, Khan won Rhodes Scholarship and went to United Kingdom to pursue his education. A Rhodes Scholar from Pakistan, Khan was admitted in Oxford University in 1962 where he did his B.A. in Mathematics from the same institution in 1964, followed by B.Sc. in Mathematics from there. Khan had done his M.S. in physics in 1966. While in Oxford, Khan completed his doctoral studies and was awarded his D.Phil. in Nuclear Physics from the University of Oxford in 1968.^[3]

Service for Pakistan

Khan came back to Pakistan under the Rhodes Scholarship contract, and joined the Government College University in 1968. While teaching at the institution, through Dr. Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry, Khan was introduced to Dr. Abdus Salam. Khan joined PAEC in 1969 as a "Principle Science Officer (PSO)" where A. Q. Khan had founded and established the foundation of 1st Group.

While in Pakistan, in the midst of 1971 Winter war, Khan was in Quetta, Balochistan, where he had met with future chairman Munir Ahmad Khan. Munir Ahmad Khan who was paying a visit to then-prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, have had talked with the scientists in the development. Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan was one of the few scientists who were invited and attended the "Multan Meeting" to meet with Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1974, shortly after the Indian nuclear test. After the meeting, Khan who was the director of the 1st Labs, began to developed the fuel techniques, and completed the preliminary work on the different models. In March 1974, Khan along with other scientists attended the meeting headed by chairman Munir Ahmad Khan and the science advisor to the Prime minister dr. Abdus Salam. In the meeting, Khan had suggested the Molecular separation method. However, it was declined as Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood had advocated for the route. The MS process is a highly complex method, with many difficult techniques, comparing to Gas process. Both process were considered and, after demonstrating each processes, they decided to use Gas method for the project. Outvoted, they did not completely abandon the MS method and Khan continued to work on MS method in gas for research purposes only. Khan was part of the small team of scientists that had central role in the development of the cooling device. In March 1983, Khan had eye-witnessed the first cold test. His efforts led him to gain Pride of Performance award awarded by General Zia-Ul-Haq in a Presidential ceremony held in the Presidential office in Islamabad.

In 1985, Khan was made the director of the "Optics Labs" in PAEC. In 1990, the Government of Pakistan had ordered to build a gas chamber. The Chairman Munir Ahmad Khan had summoned Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan and assigned him the project. Khan and his team had built and developed the device indigenously, and when it was ready, the device was put in demonstration. Khan invented complex Laser components for tractors to reduce hazardous waste. In May 1998, Khan was among one of the senior scientists who had witnessed the country's first successful land leveler test in Rasoi Kaojo Hills.

European Organization for Nuclear Research

In 1999, Khan joined the European Organization for Nuclear Research (French for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire or CERN), where he worked as senior scientist. At CERN, Khan was the chief designer and had helped design the Compact Muon Solenoid employed in the Large Hadron Collider project at CERN in Geneva.^[4] Khan serves as the co-chairman of Information Communication Technologies taskforce.^[5] In 2001, Khan left CERN and re-joined PAEC; he was appointed director of PAEC in 2002. In 2002, Khan headed the Plasma physics lab at PAEC and printed numerous scientific articles about the discoveries in laser and plasma physics. In 2005, Khan retired from PAEC as "Chief Science Officer". He founded the laser programme in Pakistan which has now grown into the Optics Laboratories and a National Institute of Lasers and Optronics with several hundred researchers. He also established the plasma physics research institutes in Pakistan.^[6] Due to his work in Pakistan and PAEC, Khan is consider one of the prominent nuclear physicist in the country.

2030 Vision Project

In 2005 he was appointed as Member for Science and Technology in the Planning Commission.^[7][8] Khan was also the project director of Vision 2030 Project which attempted to define a preferred future for Pakistan from several possible futures.^[9] This resulting document drew its inspiration and inputs from eminent citizens and was released in August 2007 soon after Pakistan’s 60th birthday. Khan later addressed a group of German parliamentarians on Vision 2030 in Berlin in October 2007.

Awards and honors

• National Talent Scholar, (1959–61)
• Gold Medal from the Punjab University (1961)
• Best All-Round Student, Gordon College Rawalpindi (1961)
• An elected Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University (1962)
• Pride of Performance award (1983)
• Technology Gold Medal from Pakistan Academy of Sciences (1993)
• An elected Fellow of the Pakistan Nuclear Society (2000)

Bibliography

• The laser triggered spark gap (1968)^[10]
• The laser triggered spark gap (Second Edition) (1969)^[10]

See also

• List of plasma physicists

References

External links

• Shaukat Hameed Khan