Fullbright Scholarships for Pakistani Nationals

This program funds graduate study in the United States for a Master’s degree program.

The program is funded by The United States Agency for International Development (USAID). All disciplines are eligible, except for clinical medicine, with priority given to Education, Educational Management, Agriculture, Health, Teaching of English, Journalism, and fields related to economic development. Eligible candidates will have either a four-year Bachelor’s degree or a Bachelor’s and Master’s combination totaling 16 years of formal education from an accredited university. Recent graduates are strongly encouraged to apply, except for MBA applicants, who require 3 years of work experience.

Fulbright/HEC/USAID Ph.D. Scholarship
This program funds graduate study in the United States towards a Ph.D. degree. This may be coursework and/or research towards a Ph.D. or an entire program. Funding for this program is provided by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of the Government of Pakistan as well as USAID. Eligible applicants will have a Master’s, M. Phil. or comparable degree (a minimum of 18 years of formal education) from an accredited university.

Who is eligible for these scholarships?
Pakistani citizens with strong academic histories are eligible to apply.
All disciplines - Sciences, SocialSciences, Arts, Humanities, Journalism, Business, Law - are welcome to apply, except clinical medicine.

It is highly desirable that candidates have work experience in teaching, research, or the publicsector in Pakistan.

In addition to academic work, persons selected for Fulbright programs are expected to share information about Pakistani life and culture with their U.S. colleagues and with community groups in the U.S. On returning to Pakistan, Fulbright grantees are expected to share their U.S. experiences with colleagues and community groups in Pakistan.
Successful candidates should be poised to assume a leadership position in their field and must be committed to returning and serving Pakistan.

Application process & deadline
Original application with references and attested copies of supporting documentation along with oneadditional copy of the complete application must be received by 4:30 p.m. on May 18, 2009.

Furher Scholarship Information
http://www.usefpakistan.org/
http://ciit-isb.edu.pk/NEFiles/Images/Fulbright2009.pdf

Two postdoctoral positions in Sweden

2 Postdoctoral positions, Department of Forest Ecology and Management,
Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå, Sweden:

(1) Post-doctoral position in Forest Regeneration
(2) Post-doctoral position in Aboveground-Belowground Feedbacks

The position is both fully financed for two years will be based in the Department of Forest Ecologyand Management. The post-doctoral researchers will be working in an active research environmentwith up to date laboratory facilities, glasshouse and access to field sites. Much of the work will befield-based. All the field work for the forest regeneration position will be based in the boreal forest ofnorthern Sweden. Half the field work for the aboveground-belowground feedback position will also bebased in northern Sweden while half will be based in temperate forests in New Zealand.

(1) Forest Regeneration Position: There is much recent interest in theinteractions between various disturbance types and forest regeneration in the Swedish boreal forest,especially given the importance of management and fire regime as ecological drivers in borealforests. This position will investigate how disturbance intensity may affect resource partitioning,resource use and spatial variability of naturally regenerating tree seedlings in the Swedish borealforest. As such it will contribute to our understanding of manipulation of natural and anthropogenicdisturbances as a tool for forest management. The scope of this position is deliberately broad, and willbe adapted to suit the specific research interests of the researcher that is appointed.

(2) Aboveground- Belowground Feedback position
This position will involve two components.

i)- Fire intensity effects in the Swedish boreal forest. Wildfire is the main naturaldisturbance regime in boreal forests in Sweden. This work will involve characterizing the role of fireintensity (in terms of both canopy disturbance and humus burning) on aboveground and belowgroundprocesses that are relevant to ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical processes;

ii) Invasivemammals in the New Zealand rainforest. New Zealand represents an excellent ‘outdoor laboratory’ forstudying ecosystem consequences of recent invasion by alien species. This work will involve howinvasive mammals in New Zealand rainforest drive aboveground-belowground feedbacks. The scopeof both components is deliberately broad, and will be adapted to suit the specific research interests ofthe researcher that is appointed. It is expected that the researcher will travel to New Zealand eachyear for fieldwork while remaining based in Umeå.

Qualifications for these positions are a PhD in Biology, Ecology or Forestry.

Applications for either or both positions should include a written application, including curriculum vitae, a brief description of research interests, and a list of at least two references familiar with the applicant’s qualifications.

Read more about SLU: http://www.slu.se/

Further information about the Forest Regeneration position:
Professor Marie-Charlotte Nilsson
Hegethorn SLU Umeå, Department of Forest Ecology and Management,
e-mail: Marie-Charlotte.Nilsson@svek.slu.se
tel. +46 90 786 84 40

Further information about the Aboveground-Belowground feedback position:
Professor David Wardle
SLU Umeå,
Department of Forest Ecology and Management,
e-mail: David.Wardle@svek.slu.se
tel.+46 90 786 8471

Applications must have arrived at the Registrar of SLU, P.O. Box 7070,S- 750 07 Uppsala or registrator@slu.se no later than March 10 2009.

Postdoctoral fellowship at Stockholm University

Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology,
Stockholm University

The Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology is one of the major departments within theFaculty of Science at Stockholm University. The department has 120 employees and approximately 1500students. The main research disciplines are Geomorphology, Glaciology, Climatology, Quaternary Geology,Hydrology, Remote Sensing, Geographical Data Processing, Ecological Geography and Tropical Geography.

Teaching is oriented towards geography, earth sciences, geosciences and environmental protection.

Project description: We invite applications for a two-year post-doctoral fellowship within the topic of: Modelling plant species dispersal in fragmented landscapes, at the Department of Physical Geography and QuaternaryGeology. The overall objective is to understand how past and present land use influence species dispersal anddiversity in fragmented landscapes with a high human impact. Specific objectives are to create a suitablemodelling platform for modelling plant dispersal at a landscape scale, and to model plant species dispersal basedon dispersal traits in real landscape with different pattern and human impact.

The study will be carried out in close collaboration with PhD-students and a senior researcher within thelandscape ecology group at the Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology. Our main researchfocus is historical land use influence on dispersal and diversity of grassland species in rural landscapes, andanalysing land use changes, plant functional types and species turnover and dispersal in the archipelago. We have field sites in the Stockholm archipelago and also in rural landscapes on the mainland. The work is crossdisciplinarywith close collaborations with human geography and the different ecology departments at StockholmUniversity.

Qualifications for the research fellowship are a PhD in Biology or Ecology or closely related discipline, and goodqualifications in geographical information systems and spatial statistics. The applicant needs to have a PhD notolder than 5 years from a non-Swedish university.

Final date for applications: March 31, 2009.

Latest starting date is September 1, 2009.

Applications should include a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, copies of degreecertificates and transcripts of academic records (all attested) and a list of two persons who may act as references(with phone numbers and email addresses).

Applications should be sent to:
Stockholm University,
Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology,
Susanna Blåndman, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

For further information contact:
Associate professor Sara Cousins +46 (0)8 16 47 67, e-mail:sara.cousins@natgeo.su.se

Postdoctoral opportunities at Microsoft

The Computational Ecology & Environmental Science group at Microsoft Research, based in Cambridge,England, has openings for postdoctoral research scientists in the following areas: ecological networks, plantecology, behavioural ecology, biodiversity and biogeography.

The CEES group undertakes research to deepen our understanding of critical fundamental and applied problemsin ecology and environmental science, and develops novel computational methods for addressing theseproblems. The group has a strong scientific publication record, is very well resourced, has a sister group incomputational biology, and benefits from links to a software and tools team with whom we aim to developuseable, freely available software for use by the scientific community. All members of the CEES group pursuepersonal research agendas, as well as working closely with a wide range of external partners including senioracademics, co-supervised PhD students, and NGOs.

CEES postdocs are expected to carry out novel scientificresearch, and to publish this research in international peer-reviewed scientific journals; as well as engaging withthe mission of the group more widely.

A demonstrated interest and background in quantitative ecology / environmental science; interest in research atthe interface of ecology, biology, computer science and other related disciplines; and an interest in developingand disseminating novel computational methods; are required. Interested candidates are welcome to contact anymember of the CEES for informal discussions prior to applying. Applications should include a statement ofresearch interests and curriculum vita. Review of applications will begin March 1st and continue until thepositions are filled.

Apply here: https://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/jobs/fulltime.aspx

http://research.microsoft.com/ecology

Email: cambpdoc@microsoft.com

Pakistani Student at Standford wins Gates Cambridge Scholarship

.........................Gates Scholars—about 100 will be chosen around the world, including the Americans—are selected based on their intellectual abilities, leadership capacities and desire to use their knowledge and talent to provide service to their communities and improve the lives of others. Since the program was established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, 17 students from Stanford have been named Gates Scholars.

This year's scholars from Stanford are Muhammad Bilal Mahmood, a senior majoring in biology; Chandler Robinson, a student at the School of Medicine; and Elizabeth "Eliza" Ridgeway, who graduated in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in English.

Committed to social change in Pakistan

Muhammad Bilal Mahmood, 21, was born and raised in Palo Alto and spent two years attending high school in Lahore, Pakistan. He plans to pursue a master of philosophy degree in bioscience enterprise at Cambridge.

"While attending high school in Pakistan I was passionately involved in traditional charitable activities," Mahmood wrote in his scholarship application. "Yet I slowly became wary of such efforts, realizing their ineffectiveness in a feudal society that restricts access to higher education and job opportunities. Still optimistic, I started to search for a sustainable means to establish social change in Pakistan."

Mahmood, who is minoring in economics, said his undergraduate studies in biology at Stanford led him to conclude that biotechnology could provide a path leading to social change in Pakistan.
"Recognizing it as a multidisciplinary entrepreneurial field, I saw how biotechnology has the power to sustainably bridge Pakistan's untapped medical and engineering sectors into a whole new vocational infrastructure," he wrote. "A biotech company could offer the highly educated, underemployed middle class more job options and higher living standards. It would also in turn allow wealth to permeate below the feudal-elite, and increase human capital."

Mahmood spent a year working as an intern in the Stanford Pediatric Surgery Lab. He is the co-founder of Gumball Capital, a nonprofit organization that has distributed more than $13,000 in microloans to the working poor living in more than three dozen developing nations, including Bolivia, Ghana, Nigeria, Peru and Pakistan........................

Source: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/march4/gates-cambridge-scholarships-030409.html

A Pakistani student appeals from UK

I, with other scholars from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, was sent to the UK on merit scholarship awarded by the LUMHS/HEC for a four-year PhD degree course about two and a half years back. The relevant authorities in Pakistan have informed us recently that it is mandatory for us to finish our studies in three years at any cost.

I, a medical doctor and a member of the Faculty of Community Medicine and Public Health Sciences at LUMHS, with teaching experience of about 12 years, married, having four young children, proceeded to do my PhD degree course in epidemiology and public health, at the University of Nottingham, UK, in September 2006, after fulfilling all the requirements, i.e. clearing IELTS, GRE and a core course/test conducted by a fac ulty of international repute, organised by LUMHS (under the Faculty Enhancement Programme of the HEC/Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan).

For the PhD, I was granted ex-Pakistan leave of four years by the authorities. Accordingly, I was allowed a scholarship which included university tuition fees (for three years and paid in advance) and living expenses of 750 pounds per month for four years, permissible under the HEC policy.
After getting excellent progress reports during the first and the second year, I am in my third year of studies and progressing well in accordance with the study/research plan, and the fourth year is to be followed by write-up of the thesis, reviews by the supervisor, its submission and evaluation by the ex aminers, defending the thesis/viva voce, which will lead to the successful completion of the degree course and, finally, my return to my Alma Mater and the country with a PhD degree.

Under the circumstances narrated above, we have now been officially told by our university that:
(1) our studies were sponsored for the period of 36 months,
(2) it is mandatory that we finish our research and writing work within the stipulated time and (3) LUMHS, Jamshoro, will not bear the expenses (tuition fee or living expenses) if our studies extend beyond the said period.

Due to this decision, I feel devastated in a foreign land for no fault of my own. It’s not only unfair but will also waste all the sweat and blood I have put into my studies at the cost of my children’s future and also cause a colossal loss of the money inves ted by the government and the university, if I am not supported financially (by allowing living expenses for the fourth year) to complete my studies/research and return without achieving the objective.

It may be mentioned here that my PhD degree programme is based on human study, which is progressing with the support of the GPs’ all over the UK, and the needed data collection and analysis of the selected samples can hardly be accomplished in the three-year period of research in accordance with the prescribed and designed schedule under the supervision of the supervisor. Write-up of the thesis, its evaluation and defending the thesis is to follow in the fourth year. Accordingly, I have been allowed four years exPakistan study leave to pursue my PhD degree course as an inservice candidate at the University of Nottingham.

Making it mandatory for me to finish with the PhD degree course within three years appears to be quite illogical. The tuition fee along with the living expenses for the third year have already been paid by the LUMHS/HEC, whereas, for the fourth year till the academic requirements of the degree programme are fully completed, the LUMHS/HEC will be required to pay only the living expenses, which is their sole responsibility.

I hail from a middle class, educated family of Sindh, and am unable to afford the expenses in the UK for even a month, let alone one full year. I appeal to President Asif Ali Zardari to intervene in this matter and help me and many others who are pursuing their PhDs’ abroad.
DR ANEELA ATTA UR RAHMAN England

Graduate Scholarships in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at King Saud University

King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia offers eligible full-time students scholarships for graduate studies at King Saud University in their prospective field of study with the opportunity to do research projects in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

Scholarship includes:
• Tuition-free study
• Housing and health care
• A monthly allowance

Students should have:
• A BS degree in one of the following fields: (Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Pharmacy, Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or
any related subject).
• A GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or 3.75/5.0
• Good English skills (TOFEL score 520 is recommended).

And should submit:
• Two recommendation letters.
• A brief paragraph of a research proposal.

Interested students are encouraged to apply. To be considered, email you CV and recommendation letters (or names and emails of reference persons) to the email address (gskain@ksu.edu.sa) or go to the website:
http://nano.ksu.edu.sa.