The Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors that is responsible for developing programs to meet the mission and goals of the Foundation, to recommend projects for funding, to monitor the projects, and to assist in the publication of research results.


Professor K. Tahir Shah, Founding Member and Chairman, Board of Directors

Formerly Professor of Theoretical Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Modelling) at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy, K. Tahir Shah is presently the Managing Editor of The African Physical Review and Editor/Moderator of the eprints Open Access Archive at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, and (ex officio) member of the Executive Council, African Physical Society. He is also a member of the international editorial councils of "Problems of Theory and Methods of Education" (in Russian), Moscow, Russia and "Revista Cubana de Informatica Medica", Havana, Cuba.

Professor Shah has authored a large number of papers and co-edited two books. He was a Professor of Mathematics in Tripoli, Libya, and Constantine, Algeria, as well as a reviewer for Mathematical Reviews, USA, during the 1970s. In 1980s, he moved to the Canadian industry, designing intelligent software and digital measuring devices. He also held a few management positions during this period.

Padma K. Shukla is an Honorary Professor since 2006 at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, where he has held various teaching and research positions since 1973. He also holds visiting professorships at the Department of Physics, Umea University, Sweden and the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland (UK). In addition, he is a Professor at the GoLP Centre for Plasma Physics and Nuclear Fusion, ISR, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal; Honorary Professor at the School of Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa; distinguished Adjunct Professor at the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan; and Adjunct Professor at the National Centre for Physics, Islamabad, Pakistan.

He has been honored with Doctor Honoris Causa degrees from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow and The Technical Univesity of Lisbon, Portugal. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and a Fellow of the Insitute of Physics (London, UK). Furthermore, Professor Shukla is an elected member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. Significant appointments include: Chairman of IUPAP C.16 Commission on Plasma Physics, Editor-in-Chief of "J. Plasma Physics" (Cambridge University Press, UK), and Editorial Board Member of new "Journal of Physics" (Institute of Physics, UK).

In 2005 Professor Shukla was awarded the highly reputed APS Nicholson Medal for Human Outreach. In 2006, he received the prestigious Gay-Lussac-Humboldt Prize from the French Ministry of Science and Research. He has published over 1,200 research papers, co-authored a textbook titled "Introduction to Dustry Plasma Physics" and edited 10 other books.

Le Dung Trang is presently Emeritus Professor at University of Provence in Marseille, France. He holds the position of editor for the Internaitonal Journal of Mathematics and Acta Mathematica Vietnamica. Professor Le is an elected fellow of the Academy of Sciences for Developing Countries (TWAS) since 1993.

Professor Le, former Head of the Mathematics section at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, was the Directeur de Recherches of the French National Research Council (CNRS) from 1994 to 1999; Professor at the University of Paris 7 from 1975 to 1999; Maitre de Conferences at Ecole Polytechnique; visiting Professor at Northeastern University, Boston, USA; Research fellow at Harvard University; and a visiting Professor at Kyoto University, Japan. Professor Le was also the Mathematics editor of the 'Hermann Editions' in Paris until 2005 and the Editor of the Journal of Algebraic Geometry until 1993. He received the d'Aumale Prize from the French Academy in 1990. He authored more than 100 research papers, edited three conference proceedings and published four lecture notes.

Professor F.K.A. Allotey is the Director of the Institute of Mathematical Science in Ghana. He is president of the African Physical Society and Vice President of the African Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), the Institute of Physics (UK), the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Computer Society. He is a Chartered Information Technology Professional (UK), a member of the ICTP Scientific Council and a member of the Advisory Board of Molecular Frontiers Foundation (Sweden).
Previous appointments include Chairman of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Governor of the International Atomic Energy Agency (Austria), Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana). He was also co-author of the 1980 United Nations report on Nuclear Weapons. He has also received several local and international honors and awards.

Ahmed Ali, a theoretical physicist and a staff member at the German high energy physics laboratory DESY in Hamburg, is a Professor of Physics at the University of Hamburg and an Adjunct Professor at the National Center of Physics, Islamabad, Pakistan. Professor Ahmed Ali is also an Associate Editor of the journal European High Energy Physics C (Particles and Fields), published jointly by the Societa' Italiana di Fisica, EDP Sciences, and the Springer Verlag, Heidelberg.

He is the author and co-author of about 200 research papers and has edited/co-edited ten books on various aspects of high energy physics, including a memorial volume on M.A.B. Beg. In the past, he has taught high energy physics at UCLA, and at the Universities of Munich and Hannover, Germany. He has also worked as a scientific associate at CERN, Geneva, the Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, and the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He has served on various international committees, among them the advisory committee of the Particle Data Group, LBL, and the international conferences on flavor physics, which is also the principal focus of his research.

Vinod Krishan is at present a Senior Professor and the Dean of Sciences at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India. She has been an associate and a senior associate of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste and has actively participated in Plasma Physics activities. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India; a recipient of the Vikram Sarabahi Award for Space Sciences; editor of the Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India; member of the editorial board of the African Physical Review and a visiting professor at the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore.

Professor Krishan has published a large number of papers on various problems in astrophysical plasmas, in particular on the non-thermal radio bursts from the Sun, coronal plasma and convective structures, magnetic transport in partially ionized plasmas, solar wind turbulence, plasma processes in active galactic nuclei and the rotation curves in galaxies. She has edited several proceedings and authored a text book titled Astrophysical Plasmas and Fluids published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1999. She has been a visiting professor at several universities and institutions in different countries.

Professor Shirani is currently Professor and Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Isfahan University of Technology (IUT) Iran; Director and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Applied Fluid Mechanics; Senior Associate Member of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics; an invited member of Iranian Academy of Science; and a member of Asian Fluid Mechanics Committee.

Professor Shirani has published a large number of research papers and several books. He has been a faculty member of Isfahan University of Technology since 1981, where he held the position of Vice-Chancellor for Research (1998-2002, 2004-05); Head of Mechanical Engineering Department (1985-87, 1992-96); Chairman of Underwater Research Center (1998-2001) and Head of the Center of Excellence for Environmental Nanotechnology (2005-07). He is a distinguished professor of mechanical engineering in Iran and has received several awards for his outstanding contribution to scientific and organizational achievements. The awards include: Outstanding Faculty Member of Universities in Iran; Outstanding Research Administrator in Iran; Outstanding Faculty Member of Mechanical Engineering Departments in Iran awarded by the Iranian Society of Mechanical Engineering; Outstanding Faculty Member of the Isfahan University of Technology in Academic Affairs; and Outstanding Faculty Member of Isfahan University of Technology in Research Affairs. One of his books is selected as the Best Book by Teheran University.

M. Iqbal Choudhary is presently the Acting Director of International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, Pakistan; Co-Director of the Dr. Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research (PCMD); Convener, National Core Group in Chemistry (NCGC); and Professor of Bio-Organic Chemistry at ICCBS. He is a fellow of the academy of sciences for the developing world (TWAS), the Islamic Academy of Sciences (IAS) and Pakistan Academy of Sciences (PAS). He is also member of the National Commission on Science and Technology, Pakistan and the Swiss Chemical Society.

Professor Choudhary is author of over 500 research publications and 12 books. He has edited/co-edited several journals. He also held positions such as Secretary General of the Chemical Society of Pakistan. For his contributions in chemical science research, he has been conferred Hilal-e-Imtiaz (2007), Sitara-e-Imtiaz (2001) and Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (1998) national award by the President of Pakistan. His contributions have also been appreciated internationally and he was awarded the Khwarzmi International Award and Prize from the President of Islamic Republic of Iran (2006) and ECO Prize in Education (2006) by the President of Azerbaijan.