English, S.S. &

Humanities

Dr. Muhammad Ashraf

Dean, Faculty of Sciences,

Distinguished National Professor

Presidential Awards –Izaz-e-Fazeelat, Pride of Performance and Sitara-e-Imtiaz

Fellow-Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS), Pakistan

Fellow-Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Italy

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ashraf is one of the most productive scientists of Pakistan. After completing his M.Sc. degree in 1980, he moved to the University of Liverpool, UK wherein he completed his Ph.D. He did post doctorate in the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA as a Fulbright scolar. He was promoted as Professor and Chairman in 2002.

Prof. Dr. Ashraf’s field of specialization is biology of abiotic stress tolerance in plants. He has been so productive that he has accrued up to now 292 publications to his credit including a book of international repute and 13 book chapters in internationally recognized books. It is imperative to mention that more than 90% of all his publications are in international journals having high impact factor. He has completed 15 research projects up to now and 5 projects are currently ongoing. These projects have been funded by different international and national agencies like, British Government, ADB, PAS, HEC, PAEC and PSF. His journal impact factor is now over 120 and author citation index over 300. He was ranked the top Scientist in both Agricultural and Biological Sciences by scoring 2050 points. Overall, he attained 6th position among the scientists from all disciplines in Pakistan during 2004 by the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology. He maintained his position in 2005 and again was ranked the top Scientist in Biological Sciences in 2005 by scoring 2410 points.

During his career, he has supervised 256 students. As a major supervisor, he has guided 43 M.Sc., 23 M.Phil. and 11 Ph.D. and as a co-supervisor, he has supervised 67 M.Sc., 37 M.Phil. and 13 Ph.D. students. He has extensively studied the effects of abiotic stresses on a number of commercial crop and other economically important plants and has established milestones in the establishing concepts, understanding the mechanism of stress tolerance and its alleviation by specific means. Currently he has invoked a new research area in Pakistan whereby adverse effects of abiotic stresses on plants can be alleviated by exogenous application of growth hormones, inorganic salts, polyamines and N-containing compounds (proline and glycinebetaine etc.) and has published a number of research articles on these issues. He also started research on the medicinal plants of local importance and quantified a number of medicinal plants for their medical importance. He is also involved in extraction, purification and quantification of essential oils from medicinal plants growing under diverse climatic conditions and stressful environments. 

In appreciation of his outstanding research and academic achievements, the President of Pakistan has awarded him Izaz-e-Fazeelat in 1997, Pride of Performance in 2000 and Sitara-e imtiaz in 2006.  In addition, he has earned a number of other awards from national and international agencies.  Being one of the most productive scientists of Pakistan he has repeatedly earned productivity allowance form the Ministry of Science & Technology.

Prof. Ashraf deems a bright future of basic sciences in Pakistan especially at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and is striving hard for the uplift of sciences at the campus. His office is open for all faculty members, students and staff, all the time to discuss the problems they are confronting to accomplish their academic pursuits.