Mujahid Kamran

Dr. Mujahid Kamran was born on 23 January 1951, in Gujrat and moved to Rawalpindi where his father Syed Shabbir Hussain was working as political correspondent for The Pakistan Times. In 1965, Kamran did his Matriculation from Sir Syed High School, standing first in the class. Kamran later did his FSc in 1967 and BSc in 1969 from Gordon College, Rawalpindi.

He attended Punjab University and gained MSc Physics in 1971 specializing in theoretical particle physics. He won merit scholarships during the periods 1965-1967, 1967–1969, 1969-1971. He was awarded a doctoral scholarship by the GoPk under the Central Overseas Training Scholarship Scheme and traveled to Great Britain to attend the University of Edinburgh in 1975. He did his PhD in Theoretical physics in 1979.

Kamran returned to Pakistan in 1979, after completing his PhD, and joined his Alma mater as lecturer of Physics. He has been teaching post graduate (MSc and MPhil) and undergraduate (BSc Hons) classes at Punjab University (PU). He has also taught PhD, MSc and BSc courses at KSU, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was an associate professor from 2001-2004. KSU has an American system with a BSc awarded after 16 years, and MSc after 18 years of education. Courses taught by him at PhD and MSc level at KSU were:-

Physics of Elementary Particles, QFT I and II, Gauge Theories, Mathematical Physics, Quantum Mechanics II ; courses taught at the B.Sc final year level: QM. He has successfully co-supervised the PhD thesis of Dr. M. Ali on “Hypercharge Exchange Reactions” (supervisor Prof. Dr. M. Saleem) 1986. and the PhD thesis of Muneer Ahmad "Aspects of Hadronic Structure in the Final State Hadron production in Deeply Inelastic Scattering" (co-supervisor Prof. G. Kramer of Hamburg University) 2004.

After becoming Chairman Physics Department in May 1995 he initiated a program of grooming talented students (through extra lectures and coaching) so that they could compete and win foreign scholarships. Owing to his efforts PU Physics students have won about 40 fellowships (worth 3 million US $ approx.) since 1999.

This program was initiated well before GOP/HEC launched its current manpower training programs. Not a single penny of the GOP/HEC has been spent in this regard as these scholarships are funded by Western institutions. He was able to transform the culture of PU Physics Department during his tenure. He never allowed political student groups, including the most powerful one, to operate in his Department. Good students, and not the stereotyped politically motivated “student leaders”, became role models in the Physics Department during his tenure. Prof. T. Bolton of KSU referred to him as “a gold mine of graduate students”. He was conferred with Pride of performance in 1998.

In 2008, he was appointed, and made Vice-Chancellor of the university. In 2010, he was conferred with Albert Einstein Award by the Albert Einstein Society. He also published a brief book on life of Albert Einstein.

As a student, Kamran was a keen field hockey player and a science debater. He was a member of the Gordon College hockey eleven (1967–1969) as well as the Punjab University Faculties hockey eleven (1969–1971). He was captain of the PU hockey eleven during 1970-1971. He was a member of the Gordon College House of Commons Debating club (1965–1969). He was President of the Punjab University Physics Association (1970–1971).

Dr. Mujahid is reciepient of the following awards; Albert Einstein Award (2010), Pride of Performance Award (1999) and Abdus Salam Award in Physics (1985)