Advisory Board

ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Iqbal Chaudhary
(H.I., S.I., T.I.)

Coordinator General COMSTECH Islamabad

  • Khwarizmi Laureate/ Distinguished National Professor
  • Ph.D. (University of Karachi)
  • Sc.D. (University of Karachi)/ Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty Kazakhstan
  • Senior Fulbright Fellow (Scripps Institute of Oceanography, UCSD, USA
  • Postdoctoral Fellow (Cornell University/ Penn. State University, USA)
  • Fellow The Third World Academy of Sciences/ The Islamic World Academy of Sciences/
  • Pakistan Academy of Sciences

Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary is the Coordinator General COMSTECH, Distinguished National Professor, Former Director ICCBS, and Professor of Bioorganic and Natural Product Chemistry. Prof. Choudhary has, since 1990, been among the world leaders in the field of natural product chemistry, and has made pioneering contributions in the discovery of novel natural products. He has discovered many potent anti-epileptic and anti-leishmanial compounds from indigenous medicinal plants that are under clinical trials. His contributions to reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics represent seminal contributions in this important field. He leads the developing world’s finest research center of chemical and biomedical sciences since 2002, and has trained hundreds of young researchers, especially women, from across the Afro-Asian region in natural product chemistry. He has established several research centers in Pakistan, and helped to setup research units in Africa, and South and Central Asia.
His scientific, and capacity building contributions have been recognized by prestigious national and international awards and honors, and fellowships of several academies of science.
Prof. Choudhary has 1,027 publications (Citations above 23,000, h index 62) in the fields of organic and bioorganic chemistry, along with 57 international patents (51 US Patents), 68 books, and 40 chapters in books, published by major U.S. and European presses. On the basis of his researches, 87 students have been awarded Ph.D. degrees. Apart from this, Prof. Choudhary is providing technical support and guidance to various industries of Pakistan.

Prof. Dr Shahid Mahmood Baig
HI, SI, FPAS

Professor / Head of Life Sciences Department
Health Services Academy (HSA)

Dr. Baig is a distinguished scientist from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, with a robust educational background in biology. He earned his BSc from Gordon College and pursued further studies, obtaining an MSc and MPhil from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. His career began as a Research Scholar at the Nuclear Medicine Oncology and Radiotherapy Institute (NORI-PAEC) in 1986.
In 1996, Dr. Baig completed his PhD on “prenatal diagnosis of β-thalassemia” through a joint program between Bosphorus University in Istanbul and Quaid-i-Azam University. He joined the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) in Faisalabad in 1995, where he rose to become a professor and head of Human Molecular Genetics, serving until 2020.
In December 2020, he was appointed Chairman of the Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), a role he held until late 2023, choosing public service over a vice-chancellorship to further the nation’s scientific development. He also took on the role of Director General at the National Institute of Electronics from March to December 2023.
Currently, Dr. Baig serves as the Dean of Life Sciences at the Health Services Academy in Islamabad. He is also an advisor to COMSTECHHis postdoctoral research experience includes positions at Duke University Medical Center in the USA and King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.
His research focuses on discovering disease genes and understanding their functions in inherited diseases prevalent in the Pakistani population. He is dedicated to preventing genetic diseases through genetic analysis, prenatal diagnosis, and genetic counseling.