Shaukat Hameed

Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan was born on 4 September in Lahore to an ethnic Pathan family. He received his BSc with honours in Physics from Punjab University, Lahore in 1961. In 1962, Khan won Rhodes scholarship and went to United Kingdom to pursue his education. He was admitted at Oxford University where he completed his graduation in Mathematics in 1964. Khan earned his MS in physics in 1966. While in Oxford, Khan also completed his doctoral studies and was awarded D.Phil in Nuclear Physics from the University of Oxford in 1968.

Khan came back to Pakistan under the Rhodes scholarship contract, and joined the Government College University in 1968. While, teaching in the institution, through Dr. Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry, he was introduced to Prof. Dr. Abdus Salam, who invited him to join his team. Khan joined PAEC in 1969 as a Principle Science Officer (PSO).

In the midst of 1971 winter war, Khan was in Quetta, where he met the renowned scientist Dr. Munir Ahmad Khan. Subsequently, 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.

After the meeting, Khan who was the director of the 1st Labs, began to develop the fuel techniques, and have done the preliminary work on the different models. In March 1974, Khan along with other scientists attended the meeting headed by chairman Munir Ahmad Khan and the science advisor to the Prime minister Dr. Abdus Salam.

In the meeting, Khan had suggested the Molecular separation method. However, it was declined as Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood had advocated for the route. The MS process is a highly complex method, with many difficult techniques, comparing to Gas process. Both process were considered and, after demonstrating each processes, they decided to use Gas method for the cement project.

Outvoted, but they did not completely abandon the MS method and Khan continued to work on MS method in gas for research purposes only.

Khan developed the techniques and methods to work on the image processing methods. Khan was part of the small team of scientists who had central role in the development of the cooling device.

In March 1983, Khan had eye-witnessed the first solar cooler. His efforts led him to gain Pride of Performance award, which he received from 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 to build a gas chamber. The Chairman Munir Ahmad Khan summoned Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan and assigned him the project. Khan and his team 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 awarded the contract to Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Khan is also known for his inventing complex Laser components for tractors to reduced the hazardous waste. In May 1998, Khan was among one of the senior scientist who had eye-witnessed the country's first and successful land leveler test in Rasoi Kaojo 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. Khan serves as the co-chairman of Information Communication Technologies taskforce.

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". 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. Due to his work in Pakistan and PAEC, Khan is considered one of the prominent nuclear physicist in the country.

In 2005 he was appointed as Member Science and Technology division in the Planning Commission. Khan was also the project director of Vision 2030 Project which attempted to define a preferred future for Pakistan from several possible futures. 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.