A TRIBUTE TO A LIVING LEGEND (Special Issue in Honor of the 70th Birthday of Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman)

William      J. Hoekstra; Bernard      Pirotte

doi:10.2174/092986712802884231

Abstract

The Editorial Board wishes to dedicate this issue of Current Medicinal Chemistry to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS, on his 70th birthday. The Editorial Board acknowledges the tremendous achievements of Prof. Rahman in the fields of Organic Chemistry in general and on bioactive natural products in particular.

Prof. Rahman’s honors include: the first scientist from the Muslim world to have won the prestigious UNESCO Science Prize (1999) in the 35 year old history of the Prize; elected as Fellow of Royal Society (London) in July 2006; conferred honorary doctorate degrees from many prestigious universities, including the University of Cambridge.

On a national level his services are acknowledged in the form of four prestigious civil awards of excellence, including: Nishan-e-Imtiaz (2002), Hilal-e-Imtiaz (1998), Sitara-e-Imtiaz (1991) and Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (1983).

At an academic level, Prof. Rahman has 856 publications in several fields of organic chemistry including 658 research publications, 21 patents, 113 books and 65 chapters in books published largely by major U.S. and European presses. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of 12 scientific journals in fields ranging from Medicinal Chemistry to Pharmaceutical Drug Design.

Seventy six students have completed their Ph.D. degrees under his supervision. He chairs the Network of Academies of Sciences of Islamic Countries (NASIC) and is the Vice-President (Central & South Asia) of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) Council, and Foreign Fellow of Korean Academy of Sciences. Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman was the President of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (2003-2006) and was again elected as the President of the Academy from 1st of January 2011. In particular, as Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Rahman has made outstanding contribution to Current Medicinal Chemistry.

The contributions of Prof. Rahman to the uplifting of science in Pakistan in his capacity as the Federal Minister for Science & Technology and later as Chairman Higher Education Commission were acknowledged by a high civil award of the government of Austria and TWAS prize for institution building as well as by four editorials in Nature.

The Editorial board wishes health and prosperity to Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman in the years to come.