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Qaiser Mushtaq

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Qaiser Mushtaq
Born (1954-02-28) February 28, 1954 (age 70)
Sheikhupura, Pakistan
NationalityPakistani
CitizenshipPakistan
Alma materUniversity of the Punjab
Quaid-i-Azam University
University of Oxford.
Known forHis work on the Coset diagrams, Group theory (mathematics)
LA-semigroups
AwardsChowla Medal (1977)
Abdus Salam Award (1987)
Mathematician of the Year (1987)
Gold Medal of Honour(USA) (1987)
Mathematician of the Year (Pakistan) (1990)
M. Raziuddin Siddiqi Gold Medal (Pakistan) (1991)
5th Khwarizmi Award (1992)
Young Scientist of the South Award (TWAS, Italy) (1993)
5th National Education Award (1999)
Gold Medal in Mathematics (Pakistan) (2000)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsQuaid-e-Azam University (Qau)
Oxford University
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI)
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Southampton University
Institute for Basic Research (IBR)
Doctoral advisorGraham Higman
Other academic advisorsGian-Carlo Rota

Qaiser Mushtaq (born: February 28, 1954), (D.Phil., ASA, KIA), is a prominent Pakistani mathematician and a renowned academic who has made numerous contribution in the field of Group theory and Semigroup. He is a Professor of Mathematics, and Dean faculty of Natural sciences the Quaid-i-Azam University of Islamabad. Dr. Qaiser Mushtaq is one of the leading mathematicians and educationists in Pakistan. Through his research and writings, he has exercised a profound influence on Mathematics in Pakistan. Dr. Qaiser Mushtaq is an Honorary Full Professor at the Mathematics Division of the Institute for Basic Research, Florida, USA.

His outstanding research contributions in the fields of group theory and LA-semigroup Theory have won him recognition at both national and international levels. In Professor Graham Higman's words, "he has laid the foundation of coset diagrams for the modular group", to study the actions of groups on various spaces and projective lines over Galois fields. This work has been cited in the Encyclopedia of Design Theory.[1]

Biography

Qaiser Mushtaq was born in Sheikhupura, Pakistan to Pir Mushtaq Ali and Begum Saghira Akhter, and belongs to the Qureshi family of Gujranwala. He is a descendant of Shah Jamal Nuri.[2][3] Mushtaq married Aileen Qaiser, a senior journalist educated from the National University of Singapore and Wolfson College, Oxford. They have two daughters, Shayyan Qaiser and Zara Qaiser.

He received primary education from the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Sialkot, and secondary education from Government Pilot Secondary School, Sialkot. Mushtaq studied for a certain period at Murray College till his family moved to Rawalpindi, where he studied at Gordon College (Pakistan). He did his M.Sc. and M.Phil. from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He then joined Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, as a lecturer for a period of one year before returning to Quaid-i-Azam University in 1979. Later, in 1980, he received the prestigious Royal Scholarship to do his D.Phil. at Wolfson College, Oxford. He was a doctoral student of Professor Graham Higman and was awarded a doctorate in 1983 for a thesis entitled Coset Diagrams for the Modular Group. In 1990 he was at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, as a visiting mathematician. He also worked as an associate professor at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam from 1993 to 1999, after which he returned to Pakistan.

Qaiser Mushtaq is a Professor at Quaid-i-Azam University,[4] and a former Syndicate Member, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He is also an Honorary Full Professor at the Mathematics Division, Institute for Basic Research, Florida, USA.

Research in mathematics

He has parametrized actions of the modular group on projective lines over Galois fields. This method has proven to be so effective and rewarding, that its wide uses can be seen in Combinatorial Group Theory, Algebraic Number Theory, and Theory of Group Graphs. His graphical technique helped to solve George Abram Miller’s problem (1901) on alternating groups as homomorphic images of the modular group[5]

He has also invented a new algebraic structure known as Locally Associative LA-semigroup,[6] and has done some fundamental research on LA-semigroups producing some significant results in this theory. Consequently, a number of useful mathematical results have emerged which otherwise were applicable under restricted conditions only.

Mushtaq has collaborated in research with legends like the late Professor Graham Higman (Oxford) and the late Professor Gian-Carlo Rota (MIT). He has been an invited speaker at Oxford University, MSRI Berkeley, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Southampton University; and an invited speaker at several international conferences.

He has supervised, as a sole supervisor, the highest number of M.Phil. and Ph.D. students in Pure Mathematics in Pakistan (see the Mathematics Genealogy Project[7]). As a result, he has established a research group in Pakistan, the largest of its kind, which is producing high level original research in mathematics.

Research papers

Professor Mushtaq has over a hundred research papers to his credit. He has written and edited several books, some of which are, Mathematics: The Islamic Legacy[8] (which received a prize from the National Book Council of Pakistan), published by UNESCO and other international publishers; A Course in Group Theory, and Discrete Lectures in Mathematics. He has also written books on topics other than mathematics. They are, Focus on Pakistan, and Pakistan: An Introduction. He was also an invited writer for the monumental book, comprising six volumes, entitled the History of Civilizations of Central Asia,[9] published by UNESCO (translated into several foreign languages).

He is also famous for his analytical writings and research articles on history, mathematics, science, education, and philosophy. He has been an active opposer of the use of impact factors[10] and citation counts of the Higher Education Commission. He led the movement against its use which he believed has damaged the growth of mathematics in Pakistan. One of his essays has been published by the American Mathematical Society which won appreciation and support by many mathematicians from all over the world. The International Mathematical Union has included it in its report[11] on the use of impact factors. Professor Mushtaq also founded the well known mathematical quarterly, PakMS Newsletter,[12] in Pakistan.

Journals and bulletins

He is an editor of the Asian-European Journal of Mathematics[13] (World Scientific). He is an associate editor of the Bulletin of the Southeast Asian Mathematical Society[14] (Springer-Verlag). Additionally, he is an editor of the Quasigroups and Related Systems[15] (Maldova Academy of Sciences) and the Bulletin of the Malaysian Mathematical Society,[16] an advisory editor of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Mathematics,[17] an associate editor of the journal Advances in Algebra and Analysis, a reviewer for the Mathematical Reviews of the American Mathematical Society (USA) and the Zentrablatt fur Mathematik (Springer-Verlag, Germany).

Honours and awards

He was an overseas scholar of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851[18][19] in 1980 and a senior Fulbright Scholar in 1990. Professor Mushtaq was elected an Associate Member of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy in 1991.

Professor Mushtaq's international recognition is evident by the numerous citations of his research work and several international and national awards for his contribution in mathematics. He has been awarded the several awards due to his contribution to mathematical sciences.

Academic societies

Professor Mushtaq has founded the internationally acclaimed mathematical society, the Pakistan Mathematical Society.[20] He has also founded the series of international conferences, namely IPMC,[21] in Pakistan, which now has become an icon of mathematics in Pakistan and is a well known international mathematical activity. The conference takes place every August in Islamabad. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society, the Oxford Society, the London Mathematical Society, and the Punjab Mathematical Society. He has been the President of the Brunei Darussalam Mathematics Society, and he is the current President of the Pakistan Mathematical Society.

Professor Mushtaq was one of the pioneers who started the ‘Islamic Society’ at Oxford. He was its vice president and secretary in 1980 to 1983. He was one of the Pakistanis at Oxford University who rejuvenated the ‘Oxford Union Pakistan Society’ of which he was the Vice President from 1981 to 1982.

In Pakistan, he started the ‘Mathematical Seminar Series’ at Quaid-i-Azam University in 1983 and developed it into an institution recognized nationally. At Quaid-i-Azam University, he founded the ‘Algebra Forum’ which has held advanced level seminars on algebra in particular and on various academic topics of general interest. He reformed and restructured the Mathematical Society of Brunei Darussalam as its President.

Quotes

Professor Mushtaq is one of those mathematicians who care less for what mathematics can do for scientific advance than for its life affirming properties. He is also of the view, that:

"we do fundamental research, not only to acquire results solely, but because the process is an ennobling one,"

As Graham Higman told Mushtaq in an interview on Pakistan Television in 1987.:

"It is one that makes you more worthwhile than before; it is something that if you cut yourself off from, you are making yourself less human than you ought to be."

This has been quoted in the obituary of Graham Higman in the Telegraph on 26 May 2008[22]

References

  1. ^ http://designtheory.org/library/encyc/topics/cayley.pdf
  2. ^ M. Akram Reza, Jamal-i-Fuqr, Idara-i-Talimat-i-Tasawuf, Gujranwala
  3. ^ Abdul Razaq Janjua, Aqwam-i-Pakistan, Vol. III, Dogar Sons, Lahore
  4. ^ http://math.qau.edu.pk/profile.php?id=bL8q6B6
  5. ^ http://www.patrick-reichert.de/publikationen/BelyiVortrag/Vortrag.pdf
  6. ^ http://www.springerlink.com/content/t845k34483852383/fulltext.pdf?page=1
  7. ^ http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=56529
  8. ^ http://www.dkagencies.com/doc/from/1065/to/1123/bkId/DK6465233211690941927930151371/details.html
  9. ^ http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=18313&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
  10. ^ http://www.ams.org/notices/200707/index.html
  11. ^ http://www.mathunion.org/Publications/Report/CitationStatistics
  12. ^ http://www.pakms.org.pk/newsletter.htm
  13. ^ http://ejournals.wspc.com.sg/aejm/mkt/editorial.shtml
  14. ^ http://seams-bull-math.scnu.edu.cn/en/bwh.asp
  15. ^ http://www.quasigroups.eu/
  16. ^ http://math.usm.my/bulletin/html/editorial.htm
  17. ^ http://www.iospress.nl/loadtop/load.php?isbn=09720502
  18. ^ http://www.royalcommission1851.org.uk
  19. ^ http://www.1851alumni.org.uk/search
  20. ^ http://www.pakms.org.pk/
  21. ^ http://www.pmc.org.pk/
  22. ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2032991/Professor-Graham-Higman.html

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