The President, Islamic Republic of Pakistan has announced authorising civil award, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz to Professor Dr Iftikhar Ahmad Khan, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture in recognition of his meritorious services in the field of agricultural research. Earlier, in 2007, President of Pakistan conferred on him the award of Izaz-e-Fazeelat for his dedicated efforts to benefit teaching, research and administration.
Dr Khan earned PhD degree from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and Post Doctorate from Texas A&M University USA. Having very vast and rich teaching and research experiences he produced 90 MSc (Hons) and 13 PhD scholars in the field of agriculture (Plant Breeding and Genetics). He also completed ten research and developmental projects funded by national and international agencies.
Further, Dr Khan has the credit of publishing his 126 research papers and articles in renowned national and international scientific journals. He has published many books and manuals as author, co-author and editor. The agri-scholar is pioneer of initiating the enrichment of existing conventional plant breeding research system with biotechnology and genetic engineering.
In Pakistan, he took the lead in starting the post-graduate degree programme in Agri-Biotechnology and particularly trained more than a hundred working scientists and teachers on these lines from all over the country. Dr Iftikhar also evolved and identified cotton strains with better yield, fibre quality, heat tolerance, insect resistance and seed oil contents.
He identified molecular markers for CVCV resistance in cotton and has developed a protocol for extracting plant genetic material (DNA), which is economical in terms of time, money and output as compared to the existing ones. This is being adopted in labs busy with genetic engineering and biotechnology in national and international organisations.
Moreover, Dr Khan has a distinguished place in Pakistan as a teacher, researcher, administrator and co-ordinator. At present, he is working as the Principal Officer, Students' Affairs, Dean, Faculty of Agriculture and Director, Centre for Agricultural Biochemistry and Biotechnology.
He has been rendering his services as member of various committees of the Higher Education Commission and Pakistan Science Foundation for the last many years besides being member of all the statutory bodies of the university including Syndicate and Senate.