Recipient of Distinguished National Professor Award

IEEE Karachi Section hosted an honors ceremony to celebrate the occasion of paying accolades to Prof Dr. Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Dean FEECE, Mehran UET who has recently been bestowed upon Distinguished National Professor Award by HEC, Pakistan. The ceremony was attended by a large number of Engineering Professionals, IEEE ExCOM Members, Academicians, laureates and Media person. The ceremony was hosted at DHA Sunset Club, Karachi on 10th September, 2017 was one of its own kind where people attending rejoiced their feelings by expressing words of gratitude and recalled about the contribution and guidance of Dr. BS Chowdhry from his majestic aura which has shaped their character and personality.

Engr. Parkash Lohana (Past Karachi Section Chair and an Academician currently) hosted the session by Congratulating Prof Chowdhry on achieving this significant milestone. Engr Ir fan Ahmed, a veteran professional of the Industry mentioned that Prof Bhawani Shankar is a role model in our society and his dedicated years of service would live in our memory. He commented about unmatched qualities Prof BS Chowdhry’s Academic Caliber, Hard work, passion, helping to others, sincerity, and patriotism. He and mentioned that Professor Chowdhry is unusually versatile and creative. Dr. Shakeel Khoja (Chairman Computer Science, IBA Karachi) shared by saying that not only Dr. BS Chowdhry has been his mentor but also possess a grandfather-like figure to hes daughters and how they enjoyed their stay at Southampton, UK during postdoc fellowship period.  We can never forget his valuable and effective suggestions during the bad times in the University.  Followed by his comments, Dr. Hyder Abbas Musavi (Dean FEST, Indus University Karachi) who has had the honor to be direct student of Dr. Bhawani in UG as well as in his PhD supervision. He shared that how he was astonished by the quick-memory recalling and expressed that this indeed is a key-point for a good teacher to remember their students with not just names but also from their roll numbers. Moreover, he also said that he is so proud of being having  worked  in supervision of Dr.  Chowdhry that on every appreciative call, he feels like his father is being praised for something worthy. More comments were followed by personalities such as Tahir Saleem (Retired Electrical Engineer), and Engr. Alam Halepoto (Retired Engineer) who have had the privilege to have spent many dozen decades with Dr. BS Chowdhry and their comments mostly reflected past-memories and life experiences.

Engr. Naval Vaswani (Director, Integrated Services Excellence),  who has also been a lifelong student of  Dr. Chowdhry expressed his feelings.  Sir Bhawani means a complete Professional who qualifies all the prerequisites of worthy award as being fundamentally a good teacher and teacher trainer, perfect communicator, a proficient administrator, a soft skills expert and an updated resource person. Adding into discussion, Dr.  Irfan Hyder (Dean, IoBM Karachi) mentioned that Dr. Chowdhry is  a having all the traits of good human being who elevated himself above the post and offered everyone  marvelous lessons of excellence. He is  a strong believer of creativity.  As simple as he appears, he gained respect wherever he stood and walked.Last but not least, Engr. Sarang Shaikh (A Young Professional and IEEE Karachi Section Treasurer) was asked if he would like to share his words of gratitude. Sarang, being a young professional himself has made a good reputation and name at IEEE both nationally and globally and his words were circled around that how he  got great pieces of advices from  Dr.  Chowdhry during his undergrad when he was a student and Dr.  Chowhdhry being Dean and how his failures were complimented by Dr. BS teachings, mentoring and his ultra-inspiration made me  to become a global contributor at IEEE and a responsible citizen.  Manzoor Shaikh, Associate Editor, Engineering Review highlighted upon contributions and dedication of Dr. Bhawani for raising academic standard of MUET and bringing so many opportunities for MUET students who have been availing many international exchange opportunities such as Erasmus Mundus and Erasmus Plus Mobility.

Dr. AS Nasir, former UN Diplomat  appreciated efforts of IEEE Karachi section to honor such a distinguished personality, who is an iconic figure, a stunning model for every one and  deserves every word of appreciation. I am honoured to share about Dr Bhawani and his accomplishment seems a journey for all those who still try to aspire for greatness.   Dr. Shahid Shaikh (Vice Chair Karachi Section and academician) also shared his experience with Dr. BS followed by Dr. Shahab Siddiqui (Secretary, Karachi Section and an academician) finally concluded the ceremony by giving note of thanks to everyone in the room.

The ceremony ended by Dr. BS Chowdhry thanking IEEE Team  with words of gratefulness and how he has been blessed by God byand supportive people surrounding him and to be able to achieve what he has in his life. Attendants were served dDinner and a group photo was taken in remembrance of theto occasion.