Government College University Lahore's Abdus Salam School of Mathematics Sciences (GCU ASSMS) has put Pakistani Mathematics on world's map, as the European Mathematical Society (EMS) has acknowledged the doctoral school as the Emerging Regional Centre of Excellence (ERCE) for its contributions to research at the international level.
The recognition implies that young scholars from the developing countries will receive support from the European Union (EU), Unesco and other international organisations to enrol at GCU ASSMS for advanced studies in diverse areas of mathematical sciences.
The European Mathematical Society will also get the school European funding for its further improvement and reinforcement. The society has expressed its desire to send their senior mathematicians to GCU ASSMS for disseminating their knowledge to its faculty and students.
According to a spokesperson of the GCU, the decision to acknowledge GCU ASSMS as the Emerging Regional Centre of Excellence came at a joint meeting of EMS Committee for Developing Countries (CDC) and Unesco in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
Only 3 institutions, from all over the world, are acknowledged by EMS as Emerging Regional Centres of Excellence. The other two are in India and Vietnam. EMS-CDC Vice Chairman and Institute de Mathematics, Paris Professor Michel Waldschmidt said mathematical sciences have a bright future in Pakistan. He said the EMS would provide funds to GCU ASSMS for research, since teaching without any research is not at all desirable, even at the graduate level.
"If required, the bright students of the centre will be provided scholarships and other necessary support for research and doctorate programme in the institutions of the highest level in Europe," said Waldschmidt.
The EMS-CDC Vice Chairman said that he was a witness to the excellence of Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences (ASSMS) as he had taught there for several months. He believed that Pakistani students are very bright, intelligent, enthusiastic and hardworking.
"It is for the very first time that the EMS has acknowledged the excellence of any Pakistani educational institution, said the school Director General, Dr A. D. Raza Choudary. Dr Choudary said that every year hundreds of students apply for ASSMS PhD programme. However, a board of foreign professors selects only 20 to 25 students after written tests and interviews.
We select the best but due to a general weakness in the university education system in Pakistan, even the best students have poor background in several areas of basic university mathematics, he said. To strengthen the foundations of our selected students, ASSMS requires an intensive 2 years course work from all the students admitted to its PhD programme, he maintained.
He further said the school is concurrently working on promoting mathematics among children and teenagers for which it holds training camps every year. "These students were prepared to form the first team of Pakistani participating in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in 2005."
Within a short span of 2 years, the Pakistani team went on to win the first medal at IMO 2007. ASSMS also started National Mathematics Olympiad (NMO), he revealed. The school has hired professors that have previously been coaches for international teams in Canada and Romania.
IMO and NMO now prepare Pakistan's most brilliant students for international competitions. To make an impact on the more average student, ASSMS also initiated an annual "world competition" called 'Kangaroos of Mathematics'. This competition was then handed over to Pakistan Kangaroo Commission.
Last year, about 40 thousand students participated, and the commission distributed medals and cash prizes to the winning students and teachers as recognition of their efforts for the development of Mathematics, he elaborated. Talking about the international recognition of ASSMS, GCU Vice Chancellor Professor, Dr Khalid Aftab said mathematics has been a neglected area in Pakistan for quite a long time.
In 2001, the Pakistani government realised for the first time, the very shortage of well-prepared mathematicians in Pakistan. Finally, Punjab government established in 2003 a school of mathematical sciences under the aegis of Government College University Lahore to serve as a Centre of Excellence for Advanced Studies and Research in Mathematics.
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