Anwar Nasim


Anwar Nasim is a Pakistani molecular biologist and geneticist who was the president of Pakistan Academy of Sciences from 2015–2017. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada.

Early life

Anwar was born in a village near Pasrur, Pakistan in Sialkot District of Pakistan. His father was in the police service, so Anwar spent his childhood in different cities. He got his early education from Sialkot. In 1951 he passed his matric exam from Lahore. In 1953 he passed his F.Sc. exam in pre-medical from Forman Christian College Lahore. Then in 1955 he did BSc. in molecular biology from Gordon College, Rawalpindi and got first position. In 1957, he got his MSc degree in botany with Gold Medal from the University of the Punjab, Lahore.

Career and higher education

Nasim started his career as a lecturer in Govt. College, Multan and then Government College, Lahore. In 1962 he got a scholarship and went to Glasgow, Scotland. In 1966 he got PhD in Biochemical Genetics from University of Edinburgh. From 1966 to 1973 he was a Research Officer in Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. From 1973 to 1989 he was Senior Research Officer in National Research Council of Canada. During this period he passed a Sabbatical year at Max Planck Institute, Tübingen, Germany, and the Biology Department of Stanford University. From 1983 to 1989 he taught as Adjunct Professor in Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa and from 1984 to 1989 as Adjunct Professor in Department of Biology Carleton University, Ottawa. From 1989 to 1993 he worked as Principal Scientist and Head, Molecular Genetics Group, Biology and Medical Research Department, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. From 1994 to 1996 he was Executive Secretary in Pakistan Academy of Sciences, Islamabad. In August 1996 he was appointed as Adviser Science, COMSTECH, Islamabad.

International involvements

Nasim worked at the Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology, Faisalabad in 1981 and at Center for Advanced Molecular Biology, Punjab University, Lahore in 1985. He was also member of the teaching faculty of the UNESCO Regional Training Course on gene cloning held in Singapore in 1983.
In 1978 he was chairman of the organizing committee for the International Symposium on DNA repair, Mutation and Human III Health held in Ottawa, Canada. He was also international Coordinator and Member of the Executive Committee for the XVI International Congress of Genetics, Toronto, Canada held in 1988.

Research and books

Nasim published more than one hundred scientific papers in prestigious international journals worldwide since 1965.
Some of the books written by Nasim are:
Some of Dr. Anwar's awards are: