KARACHI, Jan 13: The organizers of the 9th International Symposium on Natural Product Chemistry have constituted awards in the name of Nobel laureate scientist Dr Abdus Salam and two other noted scientists of the country, for three best scientific posters.

According to Dr M Iqbal Choudhary, the acting director of HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, shields along with cash awards will be given to encourage the young scientists from different countries, who participate in the natural product chemistry symposiums, held after every two years at Karachi.

He announced the constitution of awards at the concluding session of the chemistry symposium, with Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, the vice-chancellor of the university of Karachi in the chair, here on Tuesday.

Giving details of the awards, Dr Iqbal also announced the name of three recipients of awards for the 9th symposium, who were adjudged by a special panel, comprising three foreign scientists.

The first prize, named after Dr Abdus Salam, went to Humera Naz for her poster on "New Bioactive Stilbene Glycosides and Tritepenoid Constituents from Boswellia papyrifera," while the second prize, named after Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, the founding director of HEJ institute, went to Sami Jalil for his poster on "Assessment of Cytotoxity and Anti-inflammatory activity of some chemical constituents by using Human nuetrophils based assay".

Syed Ghulam Musharraf was awarded third prize for his contribution on "Microbial Transformation of Bioactive Cyclic Natural Products." The awards were handed over to the winners by Yasin Malik, member CPLC advisory board, who is also a managing director of a pharmaceutical firm.

Two special shields were also presented to representatives of two visiting delegations from India and Iraq. The Indian scientists participated in the symposium after a gap of six years, while the war-affected Iraqi delegation could make it after a troublesome process.

After receiving the shield, the Indian scientist, Uma S Palkar, said that she was highly impressed with local hospitality and deliberations made at the symposium.

One of the Iraqi scientists said that the war on Iraq had adversely affected the academic and scientific affairs of the country as well, since the Americans even destroyed the rare scripts of holy Quran and other precious documents along with grand science laboratories during their so-called operation.

Experts from other parts of the world, including those from USA, Brazil, Japan and Bangladesh, lauded the efforts of the organizers, for successfully holding chemistry symposium.

According to one organizer, about 90 foreign scientists and experts, against an expected figure of over 200, could attend the symposium. Some of the scientists could not visit due to troublesome visa requirements, he added.

In his concluding remarks, KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim appreciated the enthusiasm observed on the part of organizers and participating delegates. He said that scientific deliberations at the symposium would benefit the local as well as foreign participants.

He stressed upon the need of creating a bond of friendship with the scientists and experts of the developed world, which could lead to promotion of scientific culture in Pakistan as well.

Prof Karstev Victor Georgierich, Yasin Malik, Dr Shahida Zaidi and Prof G A Miana spoke, among others, on the occasion. Earlier, about 20 research presentations were made at plenary and invited lecture sessions on the fourth and concluding day of the symposium, organized jointly by HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, Dr Panjwani Centre of Molecular Medicine and Drug Research.