Dr. Hathal bin Hamoud Al-Otaibi, President, International Islamic University (IIU), Monday, visited Centre for Advanced Electronics & Photovoltaic Engineering (CAEPE) and SA-Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Science (SA-CIRBS).
On the occasion, he called for promoting research that should be relevant to the societal needs. He stressed that linkages in the field of research and sciences are pre-requisites for successful results. He urged that exchange of expertise and experiences must be top priority as it helps in broadening the exposure of scholars and students. Dr. Hathal opined that centres such as CIRBS and CAEPE can be valuable bridges to link academia and industry.
Earlier, On the occasion of the visit of the Centres, the IIUI President was received by Prof. Dr. Ahmed Shuja Syed Executive Director, CAEPE And Prof. Dr. Muhammad Riaz, Head SA-CIRBS.
At CAEPE, IIUI President was briefed by Dr. Ahmed Shuja Syed who is also Founding Executive Director of Centre for Advanced Electronics & Photovoltaic Engineering. He briefed IIUI President regarding Islamic Development Bank Funded center’s services, projects and scope.
He told that very recently the Centre won a 16.9 million grant under the provision of special Covid-19 Research and Development grants. He elaborated that the center has effective role in country’s production life for nano technology. He told that the centre has produced indigenous nano chips and a large number of students across the country are being provided opportunity to broaden exposure through this state of the art facility.
IIUI President was also told that the centre was a home to over 300 scientific projects with world-class research facilities including Pakistan’s first Class-100 clean room facility for the development of micron- and sub-micron devices.
Later, Dr. Muhammd Riaz, briefing Dr. Hathal regarding scope and nature of SA-CIRBS told that it was established in 2014 with a vision and objectives to promote interdisciplinary applied research through combinatorial use chemical, biological and environmental sciences for contributing to the modern age human needs. He told that the current priority focuses are medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, process chemistry, food chemistry, industrial enzymology, industrial biotechnology, structural and functional biology, and environmental challenges.
He apprised that SA-CIRBS is equipped with some of the very advanced equipment, custom-made equipped laboratories and animal house. Currently available equipment includes PCR, real-time PCR, ICPMS, HPLC, GCMS, UV, IR, centrifuges, multi-mode readers, nano-drop, incubators, CO2-incubators, microbalances, microtome, lyophilizers, laminar flow-hoods, research and industrial scale fermenters, spray-dryer and FT-IR.