President of India Pranab Mukherjee, Amir-e-Jamia (Chancellor) Jamia Millia Islamia Lt. Gen. (Retd.) M.A. Zaki, Union Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani, and Vice Chancellor Prof. Talat Ahmad arrive for the convocation ceremony on the university campus in New Delhi, recently. — Courtesy photo S. Athar H. Rizvi Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Besides strengthening the traditional teaching-learning process and research and extension programs, the focus of Prof. Talat Ahmad, vice chancellor of New-Delhi-based premier academic institution, Jamia Millia Islamia, is on sports and other extracurricular activities to foster the global competence of students. "It is on our list of priorities," the vice chancellor told Saudi Gazette in an exclusive interview recently. "Our institution came into being in 1920 through the tireless efforts of its founders, such as Shaikhul Hind Maulana Mahmud Hasan, Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, Abdul Majeed Khwaja and Dr. Zakir Husain. It symbolizes the unflinching and resolute commitment of these great visionaries in bringing about the socio-economic transformation of the common masses, in general, and Muslims, in particular, through the vehicle of education," he said. "My mission," he said "is to promote the growth of this institution and make it the first choice of students, not only from across India but from other countries of the world." To achieve this, he said, the university's academic and other staff must show sincerity of purpose and courage of conviction. "One cannot change the age-old concepts overnight and single-handedly. If change is to come, it has to be through the systematic, sensible and practical cooperation of all involved," the official said.
Ahmad arrives in the Kingdom on Thursday. He will be the chief guest at the 94th Foundation Day of the institution being organized by the Riyadh chapter of the Jamia Millia Islamia alumni association. Ahmad took over as vice chancellor of this premier university in April this year. He has over 65 research publications to his credit and has supervised several M.Phil and PhD research studies at the University of Delhi and the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University in Canberra. Born and brought up in the small town of Giridih in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, he joined Aligarh Muslim University to pursue an MSc in geology in 1977. After completing his M.Phil in ore petrology from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1980, Ahmad completed his PhD in igneous petrology in 1985.
He did his post-doctoral fellowship with University of Leicester during 1988-89 under a Government of India Fellowship and another from University of Cambridge under the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) during 1997-98. In 1999–2000, he did another post-doctoral fellowship under Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) with Nagoya University in Japan. He has been working on various sponsored projects, including the Geochemical, Isotopic and Geochronological characterization of Granotoids from the Central Indian Tectonic Zones (CITZ) and Central Indian Shear Zones (CISZ)-Constraints on Pre-cambrian Crystal Evolution, funded by the Indo-Russian, ILTP Project, and Proterozoic mafic magmatism in the Central Indian Tectonic Zone (CITZ): elemental and isotopic constraints on crystal evolution and geodynamics. Prof. Ahmad has the exceptional distinction of being a fellow of all the science academies of the country — the Indian National Science Academy (FNA), New Delhi, the Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc), and the National Academy of Sciences (FNASc). He began his career as a junior geologist with the Geological Survey of India and worked for 19 years as a scientist with Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, under DST, Dehradun. He joined the department of geology, University of Delhi as a professor in October 2003. He took over as vice chancellor of the University of Kashmir in June 2011 before taking over the reins of JMI. While Jamia Millia Islamia has come a long way since its inception, the university has to keep pace with the changing needs and expectations of society, he said. "It has to successfully perform the multiple roles of creating new knowledge, acquiring new capabilities and producing an intelligent human resource pool for the promotion of economic growth, cultural development, social cohesion, equity and justice," he said. "The mission of the founding fathers of this great institution should not only serve as a beacon light for all the stakeholders, but should also inspire us in making JMI one of the premier institutions of higher learning in the world. It should attain distinction in providing cutting edge learning experience, internationally bench-marked education, intellectual freedom and critical research opportunities in frontier areas of contemporary concern. Our team is working tirelessly to make this dream turn into a reality," Ahmad said. He said the university enjoys a special status in the country. As such, he said, "there is a need to deliberate upon reconstituting the academic programs through the introduction of a Choice-based Credit System, discuss suitable examination and administrative reforms and consider the use of international benchmarks, such as the Citation Index, Journal Impact Factor, etc. for evaluating the quality of our research. "I have been exhorting all faculty members to formulate research project proposals either singly or in collaboration with other researchers of this or other institutions for financial support by national and international funding agencies," he added. Ahmad champions the cause of education for girls. "Educating girls empowers them, uplifts their families and ultimately contributes to the development of the nation," he said. Outlining the changing and dynamic role of teachers in shaping the lives and careers of students, he said: "A teacher gets long-lasting name and fame only in the classroom and becomes a personality among students through efficient teaching, interest, involvement and concern for students' needs."
