The Living Scripts | Dr SM Junaid Zaidi (HI, SI)

The sixth session of the series of programs titled ‘The Living Scripts’ was organized by IPS LEAD (the learning, excellence and development program of IPS) on August 7, 2019 with Dr Syed Muhammed Junaid Zaidi, founding rector of the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), who has recently assumed the responsibilities as the executive director, COMSATS (Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South).
Zaidi enlightened the audience with his life experiences, revealing that he was among the initial citizens who moved to the newly formed capital of Islamabad in 1960s.
Speaking of his early life and education, Zaidi shared that he initially wanted to become a pilot but couldn’t pursue his dream due to family resistance. He rather moved on to complete his Masters degree in Mathematics and Physics from the University of the Punjab in1981. He then acquired another degree in Operations Research from the University of Birmingham in 1984, which was followed by the completion of his doctoral work from the similar university specializing in optimization of algorithims on networking. Later he was also conferred with an honorary degree of ‘Doctor of Science’ by the Lancaster University, UK in 2012.
The speaker also threw light on his experiences as the Director General of the National Center for Technology Transfer (1991–95) and as “Scientific Secretary & Chief S&T” with the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (1995–98), where he had the honor to draft Pakistan’s first ever IT policy.
The speaker shared that the idea of establishing an IT institute in Pakistan came to his mind during his visit to India, following which he convinced the concerned bodies in Pakistan over the matter, ending up with the establishment of COMSATS University, which he sees as one of his greatest achievements to date.
In addition, Dr Zaidi also shed light on his advisory missions to the countries like Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand and Vietnam, which he undertook as a UN-expert on IT, helping them to establish their technology transfer and industrial technology systems.