Prof. Dr. Mohammad Aslam Khan Khalil is a highly cited atmospheric physicist and Research Scientist of Pakistani origin. In his early career he worked on quantum field theory of elementary particles. During the last three decades he has worked on Global Change Science, including the physics, chemistry and biology of greenhouse gases and ozone depleting compounds. He is a Professor of Physics at Portland State University.
Prof. Khalil has shaped scientific understanding of global climate change. He was one of the first to identify methane's role as a powerful greenhouse gas, tracing its increase to human activities such as rice farming. Establishing these connections has proven crucial in the battle to alter behaviors that contribute to global warming.
Dr. Aslam Khan Khalil was born in India. His family migrated to Pakistan in 1952 where they settled in Abbottabad. He attended Burn Hall School in Abbottabad and then Saint Placid's High School in Chittagong, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Dr. M. A. K. Khalil's family moved to the United States in 1963 where he graduated from Alexander Ramsey Sr. High School in Roseville, Minnesota in 1966.
Aslam Khan Khalil received his Bachelor of Physics degree from the University of Minnesota, Institute of Technology Minneapolis in 1970. In the same year he received a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, College of Liberal Arts. In 1972, he received his M.S. in Physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Prof. Khalil was awarded a PhD in Theoretical Physics under the supervision of the Indian-American theoretical physicist Dr. E.C.G. Sudarshan from the Center for Particle Theory at the University of Texas, Austin in 1976. In 1979, Dr. Khalil received an M.S and a PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering from Oregon Graduate Center under the supervision of the American Botanist and Atmospheric Chemist, Dr. Reinhold A. Rasmussen.
In 1980, Dr. Khalil joined the Oregon Graduate Center (OGC) as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1982 and to Full Professor in 1984. In 1990, he founded the Global Change Research Center at OGC and served its first director until 1995, when he left the Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGC) and joined Portland State University (PSU) as a Professor of Physics, a post he currently holds. He is also the Director of PSU's Environmental Science and Resources Interdisciplinary PhD program that spans eight departments.
Mohammad Aslam Khan Khalil is a well-known academic and a highly cited atmospheric physicist and environmental scientist. Dr Khalil has published more than 200 scientific articles and papers in the United States. He and his colleague R. A. Rasmussen discovered the increase of methane in the Earth's atmosphere in 1981 which has led to recognition of the important effects of non-CO2 greenhouse gases on global warming. His work has contributed to the Kyoto Protocol to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases and the earlier Montreal Protocol to control the emissions of ozone depleting compounds. Dr Khalil is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World.
