Viqar Uddin Ahmad

Viqar Uddin Ahmad (6 July 1940 – 29 June 2019) was a Pakistani organic chemist who specialised in the chemistry of natural products at the H. E. J. Research Institute of Chemistry, University of Karachi. He served as co-director from 1990 to 1999 and as dean of the university's Faculty of Science from 1994 to 2000. He subsequently moved to West Germany for post-doctoral studies and was awarded a second doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) by the University of Bonn in 1968.

Career Ahmad was associated with the H. E. J. Research Institute of Chemistry from its foundation within the University of Karachi's Department of Chemistry in 1967. He was an elected member of the Council of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the academy, as well as a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), formerly the Third World Academy of Sciences, and of the Chemical Society of Pakistan. V. U. Ahmad and A. Basha, Spectroscopic Data of Steroid Glycosides (five volumes, Springer, 2006–2007), covering over 3,500 naturally occurring steroid glycosides.

Awards and honours The Government of Pakistan conferred the Sitara-i-Imtiaz on him on 23 March 1996, and the higher civil award Hilal-i-Imtiaz on 23 March 2006. On 4 February 1998, he received the Khwarizmi Prize from the President of Iran at a ceremony in Tehran. He was awarded the DuPont Science Cash Award in Chemistry in 2003 and, in March 2004, was appointed a Distinguished National Professor by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. He received the commission's Outstanding Research Award for 2005–06.