RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Prof Dr Atta-ur-Rahman a former federal minister and also former Chairman of Higher Education Commission (HEC), has compiled a first-ever “Video Book” on organic chemistry in Pakistan without using any text. The video book will be distributed free of cost to all.

A senior official at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi said that Prof Atta along with an associate, Syeda Sadia Khatoon compiled the book titled “Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry: A Compendium of Video Lectures”, which is the first video book of its kind.

He said, the video book is like any standard text book, but instead of having text material for each chapter and section, it contains video links to some 300 video lectures by leading authorities from MIT, Yale, and University of California, etc.

The world famous French Nobel laureate Prof Jean-Marie Lehn, in his foreword to the video book, said, “What is particularly useful about this effort is that the materials have been carefully screened by the author to ensure quality, and then organised to cover a broad range of topics. The novel arrangement of the materials in the format of a standard book, with chapters and sections containing video links within them, should make it particularly attractive to users. This Compendium of some 300 lectures should be a useful source of learning for organic chemistry students. It also represents a very valuable effort in line with the evolution of teaching and knowledge transfer methodologies.”

Commenting on his novel contribution, Prof Atta explained that the single biggest challenge to provide quality education, particularly in the developing world, was the lack of quality and qualified faculty. To address this problem he along with associate, Syeda Sadia Khatoon prepared a “Video Book” that can be a truly powerful tool to impart high quality education, he added.

“This was the first video book of its kind and he hoped that it will lead to a new trend that will transform the manner in which education is imparted in class rooms of the future. The video book will be distributed free to all,” he said.

Prof Atta-ur-Rahman is the most decorated scientist of Pakistan having won four civil awards from successive governments, including the highest national award, “Nishan-i-Imtiaz”. He has also been conferred the highest civil award by the Government of Austria for his contributions during 2000-2008 to transform the higher education sector of Pakistan.

He is the only scientist in the Muslim world to have been elected Fellow of Royal Society (London) and to have been awarded the UNESCO Science Prize. The largest university in Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara, has named a chemistry research institute in his name, the “Atta-ur-Rahman Institute of Natural Product Discovery”