Dr Junaid Khan; first Pakistani faculty member to teach PhD Scholars in China

Commodore Dr Muhammad Junaid Khan, Assistant Professor National University of Science and Technology Rawalpindi earned the honour of becoming first Faculty Member from Pakistan to teach the PhD level students of top Chinese Universities such as Tsinghua University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Telecommunication and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Xian Jiaotong University.

Having done his Matriculation from Cadet College Razmak in outstanding grades, Muhammad Junaid Khan got himself enrolled in Government College Bannu in the Pre-Engineering Group. He again proved his worth and was eager to join an engineering college of repute. For this purpose he joined Pakistan Navy as Lt Commander which provided him opportunity to complete Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. He did MS Engineering from National University of Science & Technoloy Rawalpindi afterwards.

In 2003, Dr Muhammad Junaid Khan was awarded HEC Scholarship against the scheme titled ‘PhD Scholarships for Engineering Sciences China’ to pursue PhD Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, the most renowned University of China. Due to his research expertise and excellence in the area of Automation Engineering, the scholar received teaching invitations, even during his PhD studies, from the same university; but he declined those invitations to maintain his focus on studies. However, he worked as the editorial staff member of the Chinese Top Journals in Automation i.e. ‘Acta Automatica Sinica’ and ‘International Journal of Automation and Computing’. Both of these journals are ISI and SCI indexed and carry impact factors. On rejoining his institution after completion of his PhD in 2007; he was subsequently invited by Chinese Academy of Sciences to conduct two weeks short course for their PhD students.

As soon as NUST announced the visiting faculty program, Cdr Dr Junaid Khan was the only faculty member who had teaching and research invitations from several foreign universities. Consequently, he proceeded to China and carried out teaching and research activities at 05 universities, 04 of which are included in Top Ten Chinese Universities. These universities have highly acknowledged his work and have also expressed their pleasure on his performance.

Being a fresh HEC graduate, Cdr Dr Junaid earned a lot of honor and respect for his Parent University in particular and HEC & Pakistan in general. His work at the Chinese institution was primarily financed and sponsored by Chinese universities. His endeavors with the Chinese counterparts have built their confidence on Pakistani graduates and higher education programs. Now some of the Chinese professors are considering even more collaborations in research projects with Pakistan and accepting PhD scholars through Higher Education Commission, Pakistan. In fact, Dr Junaid’s work is a torch bearer in enhancing academic interactions with the foreign institutes, which was indeed the most targeted goal of the Higher Education Commission. Cdr Dr Muhammad Junaid Khan can be reached at contactjunaid@yahoo.com