Past Events

Announcement of Second Refresher Course for Physics Teachers

“Problem Solving and Concept Development”

1^st Module June 25 – July 14, 2018

Organized by

National Centre for Physics, Islamabad

A three-week refresher course for young physics teachers at colleges and universities was conducted between 25th June and 14th July at the National Centre for Physics, Islamabad, with the collaboration of COMSTECH. The course titled “Problem solving and Concept Development” focuses on addressing the common deficiency of applying the knowledge base to actual problems. Each such Course consists of two 3-week modules that cover the full range of core physics at the Senior Undergraduate level. The recently concluded module was the 1st part of the 2nd Course and was participated in by almost 50 teachers from all parts of Pakistan. The full course consists of 60 one and one half hour lectures and tutorial sessions, equally distributed between 3 core areas of physics. Senior faculty from various Universities of Islamabad contributed the lectures. Poster

The program which is organized and hosted by the National Center for Physics, Islamabad was supported by COMSTECH as part of its capacity building efforts in Science and Technology.

Inaugural

Lecture of Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan

Coordinator General COMSTECH

Introducing the Proramme

Dr. S. khurshid Hasanain, Director of Programme / Adviser COMSTECH

Faculty

Classroom

Dr. Moshin Siddiq

Director of the Prograzmme

Closing

Prof. Dr. Hassan A. Shah, Vice Chancellor, GCU Lahore

July 2-6, 2018

Overview

Rising populations, growing multi-sectoral needs, and increasing impacts of climate change have put Pakistan’s already limited transboundary water resources under immense stress. It is crucial to understand management of shared basins in a holistic perspective for equitable and sustainable future. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is an effective approach for managing transboundary waters which requires strong interface of science and policy. LEAD Pakistan in collaboration with Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) conducted a Summer School on IWRM under its Project titled ‘Using Water Resources Systems Analysis to Guide a Transboundary Kabul River Water Partnership’. The event was hosted by COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad. The Summer School focused on integration of technology and policy issues. The program explored water management of Kabul River Basin as a case study for IWRM. The summer school counted with 23 participants, with 44% representation from females, hailing from districts across the country.

Objectives

Developing a holistic approach for integrated water resources management through enhanced understanding of policy and technology interface.

Building capacity of water professionals to develop a critical mass of future of Water Leaders.

Forge a network of water professionals to create a community of practice aimed at sharing learnings and creating synergies in their work.

Focus Areas

This program provided an introduction to policy frameworks and modeling tools for implementing Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach in transboundary basins. The following areas were covered:

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)

Hydro-meteorological modelling and simulation tools

Political economy of shared river basins

Legal frameworks for transboundary waters

Case study of Kabul River Basin

Presentations

Day 1

Climate Change – Regional Perspective by Dr Furrukh Bashir

Hydrology of Pakistan by Sohail Babar Cheema

Indus Waters Treaty by Dr Shaheen Akhtar

Introduction to Regional Climatology Burhan Ahmad

Managing Shared River Basins Supply and Demand Challenges by Pervaiz Amir

Status of Glaciers in Pakistan by Adnan Shafiq Rana

Day 2

An overview of Weather Observation Practices over Pakistan by Fayyaz Ahmed

Concepts of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) by Dr. Hassan Abbas

Data challenges in Trans-boundary River Basins – Case Study of the Upper Indus Basin by Asif Khan

Observation through Remote Sensing by M Athar Haroon

Water Resources Management in Pakistan by Hassan Abbas & Asghar Hussain

Day 3

Climate Modelling Overview by Dr. Jehangir Ashraf Awan

Legal Instruments in International (freshwater) Law by Ahmad Rafay Alam

Methods and Application of Downscaling by Dr. Jehangir Ashraf Awan

Haleem Commission Report 2

Click here to download Agenda 

(Co-Organized by COMSTECH)

Advanced Biological Risk Mitigation Skill-Based Training (Wet Workshop)July 1-5, 2018 Venue: COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad

Pakistan Biological Safety Association (PBSA) in collaboration with Fogarty International Center (FIC) hosted a five day Wet Workshop in COMSTECH Islamabad from July 1 to July 5. Participants were trained in biorisk management by Sean Kaufman, founder of Safer Behaviors. The participants were exposed to different scenarios in the lab such as evacuation, needle stick injuries, and dealing with an unconscious individual. The participants were also told to present on different topics on the last day, which also enhanced their communication skills while dealing with mental noise, disturbances caused by participants, and workshop scenarios. The number of participants was 30 and there was representation from all the provinces of Pakistan. It was concluded successfully, and eligible participants of this wet workshop will become trainers in their institutions and future PBSA workshops.

Arab Society of Fungal Conservation (ASFC), COMSTECH, Egyptian Syndicate of Scientific Professions, and the National Academy of Science & Research Technology (ASRT), in collaboration with Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZ), Suez Canal University (SCU), and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) organized the 2nd International Conference on Mycology in the Middle East and North of Africa (MENA) on 16–18 October 2018 at the Suez Canal University Conference main Hall in Ismailia.

Click here to download Abstract Book

The International Conference on Mycology in MENA (ICM-2018) is the 2nd in an ongoing series of international conferences on Mycology, Fungi and Fungal Biology of Arab Society for Fungal Conservation. The conference aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of Mycology, Fungi and Fungal Biology. This conference is dedicated to the Memory of the late. Professor Abdel-Aal H. Moubasher (Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University) the God father of mycology in Egypt and Arab world. The conference dedicated two wooden trophies one for the name of late professor Abdel-Aal H. Moubasher and the other to the professor Waseem ElSeesy.

Over 250 participants (200 registered full delegates and around 50 accompanying persons) from 11 different countries, representing all regions of the world attended the ICM-2018, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Germany, India, Iraq, Italy, Malta , Pakistan, Switzerland, USA and Egypt. The theme was “Fungi in a changing World”, encompassing topics such as Bacterial-fungal interactions, beneficial and harmful effects, climate changes, clinical mycology, enzymes and their types, food mycology, fungal biotechnology, fungi and cultural heritage, fungal diversity and conservation, fungal identification and quantification, fungal immunology, fungal pathogens, fungi and ecosystem functioning, industrial mycology, lichens, medical mycology, mycotoxicology, structure and mode of nutrition, Systematics, phylogeny and evolution, and veterinary mycology.

The main conference consisted of one keynote lecture, six plenary lectures, and nearly 5 invited papers. There were 40 oral presentations and 25 scientific posters. The keynote lecture was by Waseem ElSeesy (Egypt) and entitled “Medicine in ancient Egypt”. The Six plenary speakers were: Ahmed Abdel-Azeem (Egypt), Andreas Bruder (Switzerland), Bhim Singh (India), Cristina Giovanna Varese (Italy), Michael Weiß (Germany), and Zakaria Baka (Egypt). In addition, Cristina Giovanna Varese (Italy) gave a workshop on the Thursday morning titled” Marine Fungi: the missing tile in the Ocean Biodiversity mosaic”.

The conference programme achieved its aim of encouraging ongoing international exchange and regional networking, especially among countries in Mediterranean, fostering exchange of expertise and learning through active participation, and stressing the relevance of mycology to current issues.

Additional information and conference abstract book can be downloaded at the ICM-2018 website

Six prizes were awarded during the conference as follow:

1- Best ASFC’s poster prize.

2- Best ASFC’s research by undergraduate Student prize.

3- Best MBZ’s bioprospecting & sustainable conservation prize.

4- Young Mycologist Award in Comstech’s awarded to outstanding mycologists early in their career.

5- BEST Al-Khafagy’ Prize (Fungal Biotechnology in Food Production).

6- BEST Al-Khafagy’ Prize (Fungal Biotechnology in DRUG Production).

Ahmed Abdel-Azeem

President of ASFC

(zemo3000@yahoo.com)

18-19 October 2018

The RSC Pakistan 1st International Conference on Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery was successfully co-organized by the Royal Society of Chemistry and COMSTECH. The Quaid-i-Azam University, Abdul Wali Khan University, Punjab University and Women’s University, Swabi, also supported the Conference. The Conference was held between 18-19 October 2018 at the COMSTECH Secretariat in Islamabad. It was participated in by a team of 13 renowned scientists from Oxford University and other UK institutions (University College London, Bristol University, and Liverpool John Moores University). The conference was also attended by twelve scientists from eight OIC countries besides Pakistan. These included Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman and Palestine. Over two hundred local academics, researchers and students from 13 cities and 40 institutions actively participated and presented oral talks and poster presentations.

Muhammad Azam Khan Swati

Federal Minister for Science

and Technology, Pakistan.

Sir John Holman

Immediate Past President,

The Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.

The Inaugural reception ( Click here for Inaugural photographs ) of the Conference was graced by the Federal Minister for Science and Technology Mr. Muhammad Azam Khan Swati as the Chief Guest. The honourable Minister appreciated the commitment shown by the foreign faculty from European and OIC countries to attend the conference. He expressed his keen desire to be presented with tangible proposals from this Conference that may help promote medicinal research in Pakistan.

The Conference had a total of 6 sessions that focussed on various aspects of latest research in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. A total of 32 oral presentations, and 74 poster presentations were made. (Click here for Conference Programme ). Speakers from UK, Pakistan and other OIC countries described their most recent work in the area.

Dr. Khurshid Hasanain

Adviser COMSTECH

Dr. Amjad Khan

Program Chair

Prof. Dr. Micheal McDonough

FRS, Oxford University, UK.

Prof. Dr. Grant Churchill

Oxford University, UK.

Prof. Dr. Tim Claridge

Oxford University, UK.

Prof. Dr. Michael Heinrich

University College London, UK.

Dr. Rana Sanyal

Bogazici University, Turkey.

These talks also focussed on the challenges faced by scientists as well as by societies in providing affordable medicines to the world’s burgeoning population in the wake of the emerging anti-microbial resistance and newly emerging diseases. ( Click here for Speakers’ photographs) (Click here for posters session photographs)

Prof. Chas Bountra, Pro-Rector (Innovation) of Oxford University, identified the key priorities in medicinal research viz. need for novel effective treatments, increasing the affordability and safety of medicines and treatments. It was also highlighted that the cost of producing new drugs is becoming unaffordable particularly so due to the secrecy features inherent in commercial research.

This frequently leads to duplication of commercial research and ensuing costs. More collective and socially organized efforts for new drug discovery were suggested as an urgent need of the times. University-Industry linkages and the impediments to the same in Pakistan and other OIC countries were also discussed in detail.

Sir John Holman, the Recent Past President of the Royal Society spoke on the occasion and stressed the need for continued scientific collaborations between the scientists in OIC countries and their counterparts in Europe. He lauded the serious work that was presented by Pakistani scientists at the Conference and the promise it displayed for actual medicines. He lauded the efforts of COMSTECH (Click here for Members of COMSTECH Organizing Committee) for providing an excellent atmosphere and hospitality for the Conference.

On the side lines of the main conference a discussion was held between OIC participants (Click here for OIC speakers and participants pictures) and COMSTECH on the need to expand mutual collaborations and activities in this field. It was decided that an informal network of OIC scientists in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery would be formed with the goal of forging collaborations, promoting exchange visits, and provision of analytical support facilities at the more advanced OIC centres. Various steps for promoting University Industry linkages were also discussed. COMSTECH would prepare the Minutes of the said Meeting and share the same with the participants. COMSTECH would also follow up on the various proposals suggested by the participants with regards to establishing the agreed informal network.

08-10 April 2019

COMSTECH in collaboration with International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) and National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Pakistan organized a three-day workshop on Genome Editing and Other New Breeding Technologies for Global Food Security. It was held on 08-10 April 2019 at the COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad.

This initiative is part of COMSTECH efforts to fulfill the expectations voiced in the 1st OIC S&T Summit in Astana 2017 for helping member states to address food security concerns in the face of rising populations and global climatic changes. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who are leaders in the Islamic World in the new breeding technologies, have already formed a working group. This group collaborates actively in research and manpower development in these cutting edge technologies e.g. genome editing, speed breeding and development of crop varieties for saline and drought conditions. One of the goals of this workshop was to extend this group to include other member states and to move onwards for greater on-ground impact of these activities.

The Inaugural Session of the workshop was addressed by Prof. Mark Tester, Leader of The Salt Lab, King Abdul Aziz University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Dr. Munir Ahmed, Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), and Dr. M. Azeem Khan, Member Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan and Dr. Shahid Mansoor, Director NIBGE. Prof. Tester highlighted the challenges being faced in providing sustainable food security and the opportunities provided by the new breeding stories including the success stories for various new crops. Dr. S. K. Hasanain, Advisor COMSTECH, explained the OIC initiatives being undertaken for capacity building of member states. Other keynote speakers highlighted the efforts of the Government of Pakistan in improving the agriculture sector productivity and the use of S&T for this purpose. They extended their full support in forging collaboration with OIC member states in agriculture.

The technical sessions of the workshop were addressed by 12 foreign speakers and Resource Persons from Australia, China, Germany, Turkey, Kenya and India. 19 participants from OIC states viz. Oman, Malaysia, Nigeria, Benin, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Oman and Palestine attended the workshop. A total of 125 participants attended, including local participants from academia and research institutions. The workshop provided introduction and application of genome editing and new breeding technologies to researchers and students working on crop improvement or genomic selection of livestock. The workshop had a mix of interactive sessions, lectures and hands on training sessions.

A special session chaired by COMSTECH was held on the sidelines of the workshop and attended by representatives of the participating OIC member states. The meeting resulted in agreement from all participating countries to become part of the working group which would be led by NIBGE. A second major outcome of this meeting was agreement on the scope and goals of a proposal to be submitted to the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and OIC for providing support to the activities of the working group for promotion of new breeding technologies. The proposal would be prepared by NIBGE (Pakistan), KAUST (Saudi Arabia) and NOH University (Turkey) and coordinated by COMSTECH.

Date: 10^th September 2020
Time: 03:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time; 02:00 pm Gulf Standard Time;
10:00 am Greenwich Mean Time

COMSTECH has arranged webinar to discuss light based science and technologies and its impact on electronics, medicine, and in general natural sciences including chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy, and earth sciences. 

Target Audience: This webinar is open to science policy makers, academicians, scientists and general public from all the member OIC states.

Poster of webinar:  Attached

Abstract of talk: Attached

Speaker’s Profile:

Yusuf Yagci is a full professor of Chemistry at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. He received his Ph.D. (1979) degree from Liverpool University (UK). He joined Istanbul Technical University in 1980 where he continued all his academic activities till now.  He has published over 600 original research papers and 48 book chapters, and is the inventor and co-inventor of 10 patents. He is the recipient of several awards including The Society of Polymer Science, Japan (SPSJ) International Award (2008), OIC Ministerial COMSTEC International Award (2010), OIC Science & Technology Award (2017), and Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (2017), Belgian Polymer Group International Award (2018), Japan Photopolymer Science and Technology Award (2018), Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (2018).

Link for registration and E- certificate:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfMJtIxb3jfaWmAfAGd9E6V6KlnYuFuhaRG2Ll0QJyDPAXOUg/viewform

Procedure to join:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89099468761?pwd=RldsSjcvUTEwOGZTMjVUYnBUS2o4QT09

Meeting ID: 890 9946 8761
Passcode: 483685

Contact Information: 

Address: COMSTECH Secretariat, 33-Constitution Avenue, G-5/2, Islamabad 
Phone No. : 92 51 9220681-3
Email: Khazima@comstech.org ; comstech@comstech.org

Click here for the Video 

Global Coordinator
International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications
Executive Director,
Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre

Date: 24^th August 2020
Time: 03:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time; 02:00 pm Gulf Standard Time;
10:00 am Greenwich Mean Time

COMSTECH has arranged webinar to discuss impact of democratising science for science and society. Speaker will also sensitise the audience on principles and tools used for science communication.

Target Audience: This webinar is open to science policy makers, academicians, scientists and general public from all the member OIC states.

Poster of webinar: Attached:
Abstract of talk: Attached:
Speaker’s Profile: Attached:

Link for registration and E- certificate:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJ3T8-6KCLYCN3yOYh4Pylr6CZfTygnkZn4VUPOn1voCN0zg/viewform

Procedure to join:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84848124501?pwd=dEx0MFBkb1dKMFFpRWVLL0IyblZpUT09

Meeting ID: 848 4812 4501
Passcode: 418940

Contact Information: 

Address: COMSTECH Secretariat, 33-Constitution Avenue, G-5/2, Islamabad 
Phone No. : 92 51 9220681-3
Email: Khazima@comstech.org ; comstech@comstech.org

COMSTECH has arranged webinar to discuss significance of providing science based advice to the governments. Speaker will also touch upon examples of COVID-19 response adopted by the governments in light of scientific advice.

Click here  to watch the recording.

Target Audience:
This webinar is open to science policy makers, academicians, scientists and general public from all the member OIC states.

Poster of webinar:  Attached:

Abstract of talk: The incident of COVID19 pandemic is a good example of how science would provide sound advice to governments. This would entail the role of the scientific community in giving a narrative of the cause and origin of the pandemic right to detailing the steps that need to be taken to mitigate this gargantuan problem. Being a multi sectoral and multi disciplinary issue, it calls on the whole spectrum of scientific discipline to be involved, namely from the natural sciences to the social sciences and humanities. While governments scramble to find the best economic package and health well-being of the affected countries, the single biggest cause which should not be neglected would be environmental in nature, i.e. the root cause of the zoonotic disease is destruction of wildlife habitat.

Speaker’s Profile: Attached:

Link for registration and E- certificate:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdcP80al-3_W_2XQXZ-xSf11LhQXsaWGkr0PYuPjro_MAMVcA/viewform

Procedure to join:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86317009703?pwd=YUtCSm55Y3B4Q2QyeDJjbXllNjRndz09

Meeting ID: 863 1700 9703
Passcode: 141669

Contact Information: 

Address: COMSTECH Secretariat, 33-Constitution Avenue, G-5/2, Islamabad 
Phone No. : 92 51 9220681-3
Email: Khazima@comstech.org ; comstech@comstech.org

Course Flyer

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has brought a state of emergency worldwide. This pandemic has affected underdeveloped and developing countries due to lower resources in diagnostic and healthcare sectors. The first case of SARS-CoV-2 virus in Pakistan was confirmed on 26th of February 2020. As of 8^th July 2020, there have been about 237,489 confirmed cases with 140,965 recoveries and 4,922 deaths in the country.

The current reference test for the diagnosis of active infection by SARS-CoV-2 is a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) assay. The need for increasing levels of testing for COVID-19 has been identified by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and by the UK government. In this context, COMSTECH, in collaboration with the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi is organizing a workshop on the diagnostic workflow of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

The workshop is designed to address the interest of scientists and research scholars from different fields of biological sciences including Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics, and Biotechnology.

WORKSHOP CONTENT

The program includes a series of online lectures and hands-on sessions on the following topics;

• Sample collection from suspected patients by oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs
• Viral RNA extraction from the collected samples
• Synthesis of complementary DNA (cDNA) and amplification of target sequences of the viral genome using real-time polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) amplification
• rRT-PCR data interpretation

VENUE

Zoom Meeting

WORKSHOP PROGRAM (Pakistan Standard Time)

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

12:00-12:05   Inauguration Ceremony

12:05-12:10   Recitation of the Holy Quran

12:10-12:20   Welcome Address by Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary

12:20-13:30   Lecture 1 entitled, “Selection and collection of appropriate clinical specimen for molecular diagnostic of viral infection”

13:30-14:30   Practical Session (Sample Collection, and Virus RNA Extraction)

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

12:00-13:00   Lecture 2 entitled, “Current Molecular Diagnostic Assays for SARS-CoV-2 and its importance”

13:00-14:30   Practical Session 2 (RT PCR)

Thursday, August 20, 2020

12:00-13:00   Lecture 3 entitled, “RNA extraction and PCR technicalities for accurate diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2”

13:00-14:30   Practical Session 3 (Interpretation)

14:30-14:45   Closing Ceremony

REGISTRATION PROCESS

Please download the registration form. Kindly fill the form and submit it to the undersigned before August 14, 2020. Registered participants will receive e-certificate

CONTACT PERSON

Hanifa Beg
Programme Manager
COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad
Tel: +92-51-9220681-3
Fax: +92-51-9205264, +92-51-9220265
Email: hanifa@comstech.org