| Shaukat Hameed Khan | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 4, 1941 Lahore, Punjab, British Indian Empire (Present-day Pakistan) |
| Residence | Islamabad, Pakistan |
| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Fields | Nuclear Physics |
| Institutions | Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI) Planning Commission of Pakistan (PC) |
| Alma mater | University of Punjab Oxford University |
| Known for | Pakistan's nuclear detterent program MLIS development Spectroscopy Plasma stealth Nova laser Trident laser Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy Nuclear pumped laser |
| Notable awards | Pride of Performance award (1983) |
Shaukat Hameed Khan (Born: 4 September, 1941; Urdu: ڈاکٹر شوکت حمید خان), (PP, D.Phil, FPAS), is a Pakistani nuclear physicist and a senior professor of nuclear physics at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. He previously had served as the rector of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI).[1][2] Khan has been associated with GIKI since its inception and serves as a member of the Board of Governors. He is a Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences.[3] Khan previously worked for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), where he retired as Chief Science Officer (CSO) in 2005.
Khan has made numerous contribution to the field of Laser physics, and is an author of two books, which are heavily emphasized to the field of Laser sciences. Khan has also made important research and contribution in the fields of laser produced plasmas; Ultrafast High Voltage Switching; Spectroscopy, laser isotope separation, and precision measurement with lasers.
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Khan was born in Lahore British Punjab to an ethnic Pathan family. Khan did his matriculation from Gordon College where he also received his pre-science diploma from there in 1957. The same year, he was admitted in Punjab University and received his B.Sc. with honors in Physics in 1961. In 1962, Khan won Rhodes Scholarship and went to United Kingdom to pursue his education. A Rhodes Scholar from Pakistan, Khan was admitted in Oxford University in 1962 where he did his B.A. in Mathematics from the same institution in 1964, followed by B.Sc. in Mathematics from there. Khan had done his M.S. in physics in 1966. While in Oxford, Khan completed his doctoral studies and was awarded his D.Phil. in Nuclear Physics from the University of Oxford in 1968.[3]
Khan came back to Pakistan under the Rhodes Scholarship contract, and had joined the Government College University in 1968. While in teaching in the institution, through dr. Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry, Khan was introduced to dr. Abdus Salam where prof. Abdus Salam had invited Khan to Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). Khan joined PAEC in 1969 as a "Principle Science Officer (PSO)" where Khan had founded and established the foundation of Laser Group.
While in Pakistan, in the midst of 1971 Winter war, Khan was in Quetta, Balochistan, where he had met with future chairman of PAEC Munir Ahmad Khan. Munir Ahmad Khan who was paying a visit to then-prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, have had talked with the PAEC scientists in the development of the nuclear weapon.[4] Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan was one of the few scientists who were invited and attended the "Multan Meeting" to meet with Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1974, shortly after the Indian nuclear test.[5] After the meeting, Khan who was the director of the Laser Labs, began to developed the nuclear weapon fuel techniques, and have done the preliminary worked on the different models for the nuclear weapon. In March 1974, Khan along with other PAEC scientists attended the meeting headed by PAEC chairman Munir Ahmad Khan and the science advisor to the Prime minister dr. Abdus Salam. In the meeting, Khan had suggested the Molecular laser isotope separation (MLIS) method for the Uranium enrichment process. However, it was declined as Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood had advocated for the Gas centrifuge route. The MLIS process is a highly complex method, with many difficult techniques, comparing to Gas centrifuge process. Both process were considered by the PAEC and, after demonstrating each processes, the PAEC decided to use Gas-centrifuge method for the Uranium enrichment project. Outvoted, the PAEC did not completely abandon the MLIS method and Khan continued to work on MLIS method in PAEC for research purposes only. In PAEC, Khan had developed the laser techniques and methods to work on the nuclear reprocessing methods. It was Khan's MLIS method that PAEC was succeeded to separate plutonium from the weapon-grade uranium. In 1970s, Khan's lab was sat up in the New Labs where he had developed the complex techniques for the Plutonium reprocessing. Khan was part of the small team of scientists that had central role in the development of the first nuclear device. In March 1983, Khan had eye-witnessed the first cold test of a nuclear device tested in Kirana Hills. His efforts led him to gain Pride of Performance award awarded by General Zia-Ul-Haq in a Presidential ceremony held in the Presidential office in Islamabad.
In 1985, Khan was made the director of the "Optics Labs" in PAEC. In 1990, the Government of Pakistan had ordered PAEC to build a Laser range-finder. The PAEC Chairman Munir Ahmad Khan had summoned dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan and assigned him the project. Khan and his team had built and developed the device indigenously, and when it was ready, the device was put in demonstration. However, after the demonstration, the Government of Pakistan had awarded the contract to dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan.[6] To avoid the confrontation between KRL and PAEC, the government had awarded another contract to PAEC to developed a Laser-guided bomb for the Pakistan Air Force. Khan was a designer of the Laser-guided bomb for Pakistan Air Force. Khan is notably known for his inventing complex Laser components for nuclear reactors to reduced the hazardous nuclear waste. In May 1998, Khan was among one of the senior scientist who had eye-witnessed the country's first and successful nuclear test in Ras Koh Hills.
In 1999, Khan joined the European Organization for Nuclear Research (French for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire or CERN), where he worked as senior scientist. At CERN, Khan was the chief designer and had helped design the Compact Muon Solenoid employed in the Large Hadron Collider project at CERN in Geneva.[7] Khan serves as the co-chairman of Information Communication Technologies taskforce.[8] In 2001, Khan left CERN and re-joined PAEC; he was appointed director of PAEC in 2002. In 2002, Khan headed the Plasma physics lab at PAEC and printed numerous scientific articles about the discoveries in laser and plasma physics. In 2005, Khan retired from PAEC as "Chief Science Officer". Khan is also working as the rector of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI). He founded the laser programme in Pakistan which has now grown into the Optics Laboratories and a National Institute of Lasers and Optronics with several hundred researchers. He also established the plasma physics research institutes in Pakistan.[9] Due to his work in Pakistan and PAEC, Khan is consider one of the prominent nuclear physicist in the country.
In 2005 he was appointed as Member for Science and Technology in the Planning Commission.[10][11] Khan was also the project director of Vision 2030 Project which attempted to define a preferred future for Pakistan from several possible futures.[12] This resulting document drew its inspiration and inputs from eminent citizens and was released in August 2007 soon after Pakistan’s 60th birthday. Khan later addressed a group of German parliamentarians on Vision 2030 in Berlin in October 2007.