ISLAMABAD: Working under the direction set forth by the agreement on bilateral cooperation between the governments of Pakistan and Belarus, signed May 2015 to enable the realization of the “Road Map of Bilateral Cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in the Short and Medium Term,” COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), together with the Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS), under the patronage of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the government of Pakistan hosted the second joint Pakistan-Belarus ‘Young Scientists Forum’ in Islamabad from 17th to 22nd December 2017.
While the maiden forum was hosted by the National Academy of Sciences Belarus (NASB) at Minsk in 2015, the purpose of holding this reciprocal forum in Pakistan was to demonstrate the high quality of research being conducted in Pakistan and to help identify opportunities for joint collaboration in high priority areas of science and technology.
Ten young scientists from a wide range of disciplines of various Belarusian universities and research institutions of NASB partook in this emerging forum; namely Alexey Keltskov, Anna Hadarovich, Anton Martinov, Andrei Bandalouski, Aksana Paulava, Egor Kaniukov, Dmitriy Shiman, Pavel Krasochka, Volha Alisiyonak and Ilya Baryskevich.
The delegates were met by CIIT Rector, Professor Dr Raheel Qamar (T.I.), who encouraged all forum participants from CIIT and Belarus to fully use the opportunity to seek avenues for collaboration.
On the subsequent days, they got a chance to visit the state of the art research and scientific labs of CIIT, Islamabad Campus, where they also met with the senior researchers working on various ground-breaking projects with their faculty and students.
The Belarussian scientists presented their own research work which garnered a lot of interest from CIIT counterparts.
On a sideline, the delegates also got the chance to learn about the culture and heritage of Pakistan. They especially enjoyed the cuisine and were mesmerized by the songs and particularly appreciated the warmth of the Pakistani people.
