LAHORE: Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has announced that Dr Umar Saif, Associate Professor at the School of Science of Engineering, has been recognized by MIT Technology Review as one of the top 35 innovators (TR35) in the world.
In the last decade, this is the first time a Pakistani has been selected for the prestigious TR35 award, says a press release issued on Tuesday. “The TR35 recognizes the world’s top 35 young innovators that are radically transforming technology as we know it. Their work - spanning medicine, computing, communications, energy, electronics and nanotechnology — is changing our world,” according to MIT Technology Review.
Dr Umar Saif has been honoured for his work on technologies for the developing-world. Technologies developed by Dr Saif’s research group and start ups are used by millions of people in the developing-world, especially BitMate, that enhances the speed of Internet in the developing-world using peer-to-peer technology, and SMSall.pk, Pakistan’s largest SMS Social Network which has sent close to 4 billion SMS for users in Pakistan.
Dr Saif has won numerous awards for his innovative technology solutions for the developing-world. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010. He is a recipient of the MIT Technovator Award, Mark Weiser Award, Digital Inclusion Award from Microsoft Research and the IDG Technology Pioneer Award. Before moving to Pakistan, Saif worked at MIT and received a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust.
“We are immensely proud of this recognition for Dr Saif and of how it reflects the cutting edge work being done at our young School of Science and Engineering,” said Adil Najam, Vice Chancellor of LUMS. “Dr Saif’s work demonstrates not only the potential for innovation in technology for development but also the level of enterprise and expertise that already exists within Pakistan and the larger developing world.”
