KARACHI: Renowned Pakistani scientist Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman has been honoured with the 4th IETI China Lifetime Achievement Award 2026 by the International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI), China. The announcement was made by a spokesperson for the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, who said that the international institute officially declared the laureate of the 2026 IETI Ramesh Agarwal Lifetime Achievement Award in Science, Engineering or Technology on December 4.
According to ICCBS, the award recognizes Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman’s extraordinary global contributions to chemical sciences, higher education reform, and scientific innovation. His decades-long achievements in natural products chemistry, leadership in establishing a world-class research environment in Pakistan, and influence as one of the world’s most highly cited scientists were highlighted as key reasons for this honour. Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman had also been elected a Distinguished Fellow of IETI in 2025.
Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman is widely regarded as Pakistan’s most decorated scientist. He is the recipient of all four major national civil awards — Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Hilal-i-Imtiaz, and Nishan-i-Imtiaz. His international recognitions include Fellowship of the Royal Society (London), the UNESCO Science Prize, the TWAS Prize for Institution Building, and Austria’s high civil award, among several others.
In acknowledgment of his deep scientific collaboration with China, he earlier received the country’s highest scientific honour, the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, and was appointed Academician (Foreign Member) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Multiple research centers in China, Malaysia, and Pakistan have been named after him, including the Academician Professor Atta-ur-Rahman One Belt and One Road TCM Research Center in Hunan, China, and the Atta-ur-Rahman Institute on Natural Product Discovery (AuRINS) in Malaysia.
The latest international recognition further solidifies his standing as a leading global figure in science and innovation.
