MARDAN, June 11: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Masood Kausar has appointed Professor Mukhtar Alam as dean of the faculty of agriculture of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan for two years.

The governor is the chancellor of the university.

According to a news release issued by AWKUM here on Monday, Professor Mukhtar Alam, who belongs to Swabi district, completed his master’s and MPhil degrees from the Agricultural University of Peshawar and won an education ministry scholarship for excellent academic performance.

He completed his PhD in plant breeding and genetics from the University of Wales, Aberystwth (UK), in 1995.

During his PhD, Professor Mukhtar won the prestigious Overseas Research Student Award for two consecutive years.

He also received training from the Civil Services Academy of Pakistan in the 26th Common Training Programme (CTP).

Professor Mukhtar served in several Ministries and Divisions in the Federal Secretariat as an officer of the Office Management Group, it added.

He joined Hazara University, Mansehra, as director (research and planning) soon after the October 2005 devastating earthquake.

Also, in recognition of his valuable services for rehabilitation and development of Hazara University, Professor Mukhtar was awarded the ‘best administrator’ by the university in 2008.

He joined AWKU as a professor of plant breeding and genetics in 2011. He also successfully completed several professional and technical training programmes and published more than 20 research papers in both national and international journals of repute.