Najam Awarded Honorary Doctorate by ITU
Adil Najam, the inaugural dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was awarded an honorary doctorate at the Information Technology University’s (ITU) first convocation ceremony held in Lahore, Pakistan, on December 17, 2017.
The Doctorate of Philosophy Honoris Causa was awarded to Najam to recognize his intellectual contributions to international relations, sustainable development and environmental policy. The citation described Najam as a leading public intellectual and ITU Vice Chancellor Umar Saif said that by selecting a scholar of Najam’s caliber for this honor the university had set a very high bar for the future. The ceremony was presided by Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana, Governor the Punjab and Chancellor ITU, who congratulated Najam as a Pakistani intellectual to have received international recognition.
In his address to the convocation, Najam thanked the Senate of the ITU for conferring this high honor on him and congratulated the graduating students and their parents. He also spoke about the challenging but exciting world that awaited the graduating students and pointed out that higher education is not a right, but a responsibility.
Information Technology University, located in Lahore, Pakistan, was created to advance scholarship and innovation in the areas of science, technology and engineering through a focus on cross-disciplinary applied research. It aims to serve as a center for excellence in academia, research, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Adil Najam is the founding dean of Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies and the former vice chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He was a lead author of the third and fourth reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), work for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for advancing the public understanding of global climate change.