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COMSATS Organizes International Seminar on ‘Physics in the Developing Countries: Past, Present and Future’ 27-28 July, 2005, Islamabad - Pakistan Dr. Samar Mubarakmand, Chairman - NESCOM, while predicting an even greater role of Physics, in the years ahead, hoped that the developing countries would put more efforts in developing and harnessing their human capital. Dr. Mubarakmand, a leading scientist of Pakistan, was speaking on the occasion of the inaugural ceremony of the international seminar on ‘Physics in Developing Countries: Past Present and Future’.The two-day even is being jointly organized by the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) and the Islamic educational, scientific and cultural Organization (ISESCO). The seminar is the second of the series of seminars that COMSATS is organizing to mark the ‘World Year of Physics’ (WYP). A large gathering of physicists, scholars, heads of national and international scientific organizations and diplomats from the developing countries attended the inaugural session. As many as 19 speakers shall be delivering technical presentations during the course of six technical sessions. These include 7 foreign speakers, representing 6 different countries across the globe, namely Egypt, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria and Tajikistan. Dr. Mubarakmand opined that the earlier period belonged to theorists and now it was the experimentalists that would lead the way forward. Referring to the role that physics and physicists had played in improving the standards of life we enjoy today, Dr. Samar linked future developments to experimentation and continuous scientific research and development. He gave full credit to physics for bringing us systems and technologies such as Micro Electronic Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Grid that shall play vital role in the years ahead. The Chief Guest, while admitting the failure of the scientist community to check the increasing environmental pollution, cautioned that the species that did not pay heed to and not align itself with its environmental requirements diminished. Further touching upon other aspects of national development, he said, the developing countries that equipped themselves with the latest knowledge were now entering in the club of developed nations. He emphasized that focus of our attentions should be on knowledge generation and effective application. Earlier, Dr. Hameed Ahmed, the Executive Director – COMSATS, delivered his welcome speech. He highlighted the importance of Physics in our day to day life as well as touched upon some of the issues of the developing countries that leave them far behind the developed world. These, he termed, are primarily due to the absence of good scientific institutions, universities and R&D facilities. The ceremony also included a keynote address by Prof. Dr. Tahir Hussain, the vice president of Sir Syed Memorial Society, and the launching of a book ‘Physics in our lives’ by COMSATS, which was later presented to the Chief Guest and various other participants.
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