Pakistan’s professor elected as fellow of Royal Society

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta of the Aga Khan University (AKU), has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s leading scientific body, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to global child health over three decades.

Professor Bhutta is globally recognized for his research breadth and productivity. 

Widely published, he is the highest-ranking public health researcher in the Muslim world and was recently ranked by Stanford University among the top 0.01 per cent of the most highly cited scientists globally. 

He’s quick to emphasize that these contributions were the result of collaboration and teamwork with faculty and researchers in Pakistan, Canada, and across the world. 

He has been a faculty member at AKU since 1986 and his scientific research has focussed on raising living standards in some of the world’s most vulnerable populations including women, newborns and children in low-income countries, marginalized rural areas and conflict-affected settings. 

From the outset, he has set his research priorities around pressing national and global issues, particularly amongst underserved populations and in understudied areas of need, initially on childhood diarrhea and malnutrition, and global newborn care.