Faisalabad: The Governor Punjab/Chancellor of University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) has appointed Prof Dr Ghulam Murtaza, Director of the Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences as Dean Faculty of Agriculture UAF for a period of three years or until his superannuation, whichever is earlier.
UAF spokesman said here on Tuesday that Prof Dr Ghulam Murtaza is a Professor of Soil, Water and Environmental Chemistry at UAF and has an extensive academic and research career spanning several areas of agricultural sciences.
He completed post-doctoral research at the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE), University of Adelaide, South Australia, under a fellowship awarded by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.
During his academic career, Dr Ghulam Murtaza has supervised more than 125 PhD and MPhil scholars and researchers, many of whom are now serving at universities and research institutions in Pakistan and abroad.
He has authored and co-authored more than 200 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, with over 12,000 citations.
He has also been listed among the world’s top two per cent of highly cited scientists in rankings based on Stanford and Science Direct data.
Dr Ghulam Murtaza has authored five books and 38 book chapters published by international publishers and he has completed 16 research projects funded by national and international organizations.
He also played a key role in establishing the Teaching Resource Centre at UAF and served as its focal person/director academics.
His contributions to teaching and research have earned him several awards, including the Gold Medal in Agriculture from the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, the Best University Teacher Award from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and Research Productivity Awards from the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology.
Dr Ghulam Murtaza has also received performance-based annual salary increases in recognition of his academic and research contributions.
The appointment places an experienced academic and researcher at the helm of the Faculty of Agriculture, one of the university’s major academic faculties.