About the Centre

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The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, in its endeavor to develop human resources and research capability indigenously in the field of Mathematics, established the National Centre for Mathematics (NCM) at the Government College University Lahore (GCU) in June 2004.

Dr. G. Murtaza was selected as Director, who took charge of the Office with effect from October 11, 2004.

The Centre has been assigned the responsibility for planning, execution and evaluation of the development of Mathematics at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels in the country. The Centre will guide the process of restructuring the Mathematical Education and will formulate policies for that purpose. Further, the Centre will also oversee the implementation of all the policies of the HEC for the advancement of Mathematical Education in Pakistan.

Other objectives of the Centre being:

i.  To pursue excellence in Mathematical Sciences

ii.  To develop M.Phil and Ph.D programmes

iii. To organize Conferences, Courses, Workshops, Symposia and Seminars round the year   in various sub-disciplines.

iv. To lead the development of Mathematics in the country by organizing workshops for revision of curricula, improvement of teaching methods and holding Refresher Courses for both University and Colleges teachers

v.  To help organize Mathematics Olympiads at various levels

etc etc

Regarding Faculty and infrastructure, the Centre will use the resources of GCU in addition to the budgetary provisions of PC-1 of the Centre. At GCU, there are four separate groups, which contribute to the field of Mathematical Sciences

(i)     School of Mathematical Sciences which has launched Ph.D training programme which is being implemented by the Foreign Faculty invited under the HEC Scheme.

(ii)     Department of Mathematics which has a 19 strong Faculty and runs undergraduate & graduate teaching programmes including M.Sc & M.Phil.

(iii)    Salam Chair and Department of Physics where the theoretical physics group works in the fields like Field Theory, Theoretical Plasma Physics, Nonlinear Mathematics / Physics, Chaos & Turbulence etc - some of the important disciplines of Mathematical Sciences.

(iv)    Department of Statistics which has a 13 strong faculty and runs undergraduate & graduate teaching programmes including M.Sc. and M.Phil leading to Ph.D.

These groups provide us an excellent blend of expertise covering a wide variety of disciplines in Mathematical Sciences. It is these groups which constitute the Faculty of the Centre. The Centre will operate through them and will coordinate their activities. These groups themselves will continue to play their own roles in the specific areas of their strength and specialization but will enjoy an additional advantage to draw on each others expertise and will thus enrich their experience and enhance their performance.

GCU Lahore is unique in the sense that it covers quite a broad spectrum of education from the intermediate level all the way to M.Phil and Ph.D. That allows the Centre to plan and execute various development schemes at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and thus guide the process of restructuring the Mathematics Education at both the college and university levels in the country.

GC Lahore had a great tradition of Mathematics. Especially the decades of 1930's and 40's was a glorious period. From 1936-47, the department of Mathematics was headed by an eminent Mathematician Prof. Serva Daman Chowla. His research output was remarkably rich. He produced about 350 papers and many of his results in the areas of Number Theory and Combinatorics are of great significance. A number of theorems in the field are associated with his name. Prof. Chowla made another important contribution. He produced two distinguished students Prof. R. P. Bambah & Prof. Abdus Salam. Both were contemporaries and became eminent Mathematicians.  Salam became professor of Mathematics at GC in the early 1950's before he moved to Cambridge and then to Imperial College, UK. Later in 1979, Salam got Nobel Prize in Physics. Like the old tradition of GC, the NCM has a nice blend of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

The Centre which has only recently started, has already taken a number of initiatives:

The School of Mathematical Sciences has gathered together a good number of Foreign Faculty members in Mathematics on a long-term basis under the HEC Foreign Faculty Hiring Scheme. These faculty members are leading personalities in their own areas of specialization and are actively engaged at the SMS in training our Ph.D. students by teaching them state of the art Courses and providing them research guidance.

Presently there are eight such professors with a wide range of expertise covering areas of Algebra, Geometry, Topology, Algebraic Geometry, Algebraic Topology, Theory of Categories, Analytic Number Theory, Algebraic Number Theory, Galois Theory of Fields, and last but not the least Mathematical and Theoretical Physics.

The availability of such expertise right here in the city of Lahore opens a window of opportunity for the researchers who wish to interact with them and benefit from their expertise. To that end, an invitation has been sent out to both the Faculty and the research students working at various universities in Pakistan. For those resident in Lahore, it offers a special opportunity. Never ever before in the history of Pakistan so many elite mathematicians (for that matter scientists in any field) have clustered in one place for such a long duration of time.

To benefit from this opportunity all research workers particularly the young students are invited to come and attend the Courses at SMS which the Foreign Faculty is giving or seek guidance from them in their research work, or even try to work for a Ph.D. under their supervision.

Academic Activities

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Since its becoming functional on October 11, 2004, the Centre has organized the following academic activities:

1. One Day Symposium on Mathematics was held at GCU on November 27, 2004. at which the Foreign Faculty Members at the SMS discussed the frontiers in their fields of interest and thus introduced themselves to the Academic Staff and M.Phil/Ph.D. students and others researchers in Pakistan particularly those resident in Lahore so as to give them an idea of  the available facilities for them to benefit from.

2. Intensive one-week Course on Algebraic Topology was held at SMS on 22-27 Nov, 2004. The Course was conducted by Prof. Alexander Dimca of Nice University, France.

3. Salam Day-the 79th Birth Anniversary was celebrated at a function held in the Department of Physics on 29th January 2005

4. The SMS held the 2nd World Conference on 21st Century Mathematics on 4-6 March, 2005.

5. Two-week Course on Graph Theory & Applications conducted by Prof. Tomescu of Romania (March 7-19, 2005).

6. Prof. Faisal Akram of CHEP Lahore is giving a Course on Lie Groups and Advanced Quantum Field Theory to M.Phil and Ph. D. students. He has been giving two lectures a week commencing from 18.03.05

7. On the occasion of 140th Anniversary Celebrations of Govt. College Lahore, Prof. R.P. Bambah, a distinguished Mathematician from India and an old time friend and contemporary of Salam paid a Tribute to Dr. Abdus Salam at a function held at Physics Department on March 22, 2005

8. Suggestions have been invited from the Pakistani Universities to plan and initiate 4-year BS programme in mathematics, keeping in view the Sample Structure for such a programme proposed by the HEC. A meeting of senior Mathematicians of various Institutions of Lahore was held on 28th March 2005 to discuss the proposed program

9. One-Day Symposium on Applications of Topology by Prof. Alexander Dimca, Nice University France was held on 14 April, 2005.in which he explained the work of Prof. John Nash who shared the Nobel Prize (1994) in Economics. He also discussed the application of Knot Theory to the replication of Basic Elements of Living Cells.

Administrative Matters

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The Centre has conducted various administrative matters listed below:

1. Board of Governors of NCM was constituted which met on August 17, 2004 and September 17, 2004 (List of Members attached)

2. Scientific Council of NCM has also been constituted (List of Members attached).

Scientific Council met on 16th March 2005 to discuss the academic programs of the Centre.

3. Selection Committees for appointment of various academic & administrative positions were formed.

4. Various positions were advertised in the press. The appointment of Director, Finance & Admin Officer, Librarian, Computer Operator, Naib Qasids and Sanitary Worker has been made after the due selection process. The case for appointment of System Administrator is under process.

5. Two Public Sector Universities GCU Lahore and BZU Multan were selected for Improvement Grant for their existing teaching & research facilities. Remittance of rupees two million was made to the Vice Chancellor of BZU Multan in December 2004.

The selection for the third University is in process.       

6. (i) Purchase of equipments (Multimedia, Overhead Projector, Switches, Fax Machine, ISDN modems, telephones, Photocopier etc) has been made.

        (ii) Purchase of stationery, steel almirah, white boards & bookshelves

            has been made

        (iii) A large number of Books have been purchased for the Library

List of Members of the Board of Governors

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Vice Chancellor, GC University, Lahore                          Chairman

Representative of the Chairman, HEC                            Member

Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology               Member

(or nominee)

Dr. Muhammad Aslam                                                 Member

Chairperson, Mathematics Department,

GC University Lahore

Dr. Masud Ahmad                                                      Member

Member (Physical Sciences)

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Islamabad

Mr. Ali Ansari                                                            Member

Continental Trade Centre

6th Floor, Main Clifton Road

Karachi

Dr. Muslehuddin                                                        Member

Pakistan Institute and Development Economics

Quaid-e-Azam University Campus, Islamabad

Mr. Javed Masud                                                       Member

The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Limited

Awami Complex, FB-1,

Usman Block, New Garden Town, Lahore

Dr. Muhammad Khalid Pervaiz                                      Member

Chairperson, Statistics Department

GC University Lahore

Dr. Fakhar Lodhi                                                       Member

NU-FAST, Lahore

Prof. Dr. Fayyaz Hussain                                            Member

Department of Mechanical Engineering

University of Engineering & Technology Lahore

Dr. Faqir Muhammad Bhatti                                         Member

Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)

Lahore

Dr. A.D Raza Choudry                                                Member

D.G, Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences

35 C-II, M.M. Alam Road, Gulberg III, Lahore

Director of National Centre for Mathematics                   Member

List of Members of the Scientific Council

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List of Local Faculty (only Senior Members)

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(Name, Designation, Qualification, Special interest, Number of Publications, Number of theses guided)

Research Students /Scholars (currently being supervised by Dr. G. Murtaza)

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Contact Us

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National Center of Mathematics C/O Director General

Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences
GC University, Lahore

68-B, New Muslim Town, Lahore 54600, Pakistan

Phone: +92 42 9231859, 9231189

Fax: +92 42 5864946

Email: info@sms.edu.pk