Prof. Atta-Ur-Rahman
An elected Fellow of the Islamic Academy of Sciences since 1988, Prof. Rahman obtained his BSc in Chemistry from Karachi University in 1963, MSc in Organic Chemistry, Karachi University (1967) and PhD in Organic Chemistry from Cambridge University (UK) in 1968. Cambridge University awarded him a doctor of science (ScD) in 1987.
Prof. Rahman started out as a Lecturer at Karachi University (1964), Assistant Professor (1969), Associate Professor (1974) and became Professor at the same university in 1981.
He is an internationally known scientist who is known for his contribution to the establishment of one of the renowned Pakistani centres of natural product chemistry (HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry), where he has been Director since 1990.
Furthermore, Prof. Rahman has over 488 publications and 9 patents to his credit comprising 52 books published by major US and European Publishers as well as 59 Chapters in books and in leading international journals in several fields of organic chemistry. He was ranked top scientist of Pakistan in the discipline of Chemistry in 1999, based on the evaluation of his published works.
Prof. Rahman is Editor of 5 European science journals. He was appointed as one of two Editors-in-Chief of “Natural Product Letters,” published in Switzerland. He is also the founding Editor-in-Chief of “Current Medicinal Chemistry,” an international journal published in the Netherlands. He is Executive Editor of “Current Pharmaceutical Design,” Netherlands, Editor of “Current Organic Chemistry,” Netherlands and Executive Editor of “Combinatorial and High Throughput Screening,” Netherlands.
He was the first recipient of the award of “Scientist of the Year” (for 1985) conferred by the Government of Pakistan in 1987, and was awarded the “Islamic Organisation Prize” on behalf of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science in 1987. He has also received the First Khwarazmi Prize, Iran (1993), and the Award of the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies, Japan (1997). Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman has been awarded the UNESCO Science Prize (1999).
He has won three Civil Awards (Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz and Tamgha-e-Imtiaz) and was also the President of the Chemical Society of Pakistan.
Apart from being a Fellow of the IAS (1988), Prof. Rahman is also a Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences and a member of the American Chemical Society. He is also Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London (1981), Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (1982).
He was appointed Co-ordinator General, COMSTECH, in 1996.
Areas
of Research
-
Natural Product Chemistry;
-
Spectroscopy; and
-
Organic Synthesis.
Most
Important Published Papers
-
Reactions of harmaline (4,9-dihydro-7-methoxy-l-methyl-3H-pyridol-3,4-b)indole) and its derivatives, Part I, reactions of harmaline with methlacrylate, Atta-ur-Rahman, J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans.I, 731 (1972); Chem. Abs., 76, 127211u (1972)
-
Reactions of harmaline (4-9-dihydro-7-methoxy-1-methyl-3H-pyridol-3,4-b)indole) and its derivatives, Part II, reinvestigation of acetylharmaline, Atta-ur-Rahman, J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans.I., 736 (172); Chem. Abs., 76, 127218b (1972)
-
The Total Synthesis of (+)-16-Hydroxydihydrocleavamine and the Partial synthesis of Demethoxy Carbonyldeoxyvinblastine, J. Harley-Mason and Atta-ur-Rahman, 1057-1062, Tetrahedron, Vol.36.
-
Structure and Absolute Configuration of Strictamine and Strictalamine from Rhazya stricta. Stereochemistry of the Picralima Alkaloids, Yusuf Ahmad, Kaniz Fatima, Atta-ur-Rahman, John L. Occolowitz, Barbara A. Solheim, Jon Clardy, Robert L. Garnick and Philip W. Le Quesne, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 99, 1943, 1977.
-
Total Synthesis of Na-Methylsecodine, Atta-ur-Rahman, Mumtaz Sultana, Iltifat hassan and (in part) Naeem M. Hassan, J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. I, 1983, 2093.
-
A Novel Rearrangement of a Papaverine Derivative into Isoquino (1,2-b))-Quinazoline Derivative, Yusuf Ahmad, Tahira Begum and Izhar Hussain Qureshi, Atta-ur-Rahman and (in part) Khurshid Zaman, Heterocycles, Vol.26, No.7, 1987, 1841.
-
Leurosine: A New Binary Indole Alkaloid from Catharanthus roseus, Atta-ur-Rahman, Muzaffar Alam, Irshad Ali, Habib-ur-Rehman and Intikhabul Haq, J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. I, 1988, 2175
