Dr. Javaid Laghari is former Senator and Chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and has served in six key positions in the last 35+ years. He has served as Senator and Chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, with the status of Federal Minister.He has also served as Coordinator General of COMSTECH, the OIC Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technology Cooperation – which is the organization of OIC comprising S&T Ministers of 57 Islamic Countries. Dr. Laghari was also the founding President and Project Director of a leading private university SZABIST in Pakistan, with over 6 campuses, including one in Dubai. Prior to that, he was tenured full Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of NASA and DoD Funded Space Power Institute at SUNY Buffalo. He has also served as Commissioner at the Ministry of Education, UAE. He is currently the President of the American Skills Evaluation Institute (ASEI), President of the Forum for Dialogue and Diplomacy (FDD), Chairperson of the Trust for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Knowledge (TIEK), Houston, TX, and Senior Advisor to a large number of Corporate Groups on Technology, Energy and Health in the USA and globally.
Dr. Laghari was a close associate of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and served on important political committees for the secular democratic Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was the liaison with many global leaders. He was the co-author of the PPP Election Manifesto as its Deputy Coordinator, which eventually led the party to an election victory in 2009. He also served as Vice Chairman of the Central Policy Planning Committee, Co-Chairman of the Task Force on Manifesto Implementation, and Chairman of the Energy and Power Committee.
Dr. Laghari’s research interest is in high energy storage and pulsed power devices and their application to space and other futuristic technologies and systems. He has previously attended the NATO Advanced Study Institute on “The Behavior of Systems in a Space Environment” in UK in 1991; and the NATO Advanced Study Institute on “Fast Electrical and Optical Diagnostic Principles and Techniques” in Italy in 1983. Only top 100 scientists from NATO countries are invited to attend these Advanced Institutes in Europe.
While at SUNY Buffalo, he acquired over $ 5 million in research funding and established the NASA and Department of Defense (DoD) funded Space Power Institute, served as its Director, and performed sponsored research for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Naval Research Lab (NRL), the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA), the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), the Strategic Defense Initiatives (SDI), Hughes Aircraft and the Boeing Aerospace Company. He was associated, among others, with the NASA Project Pathfinder, which was to establish a colony on Moon, and the manned mission to Mars. He was associated with the design of the second-generation Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), and NASA's first Electric Vehicle (EV) Sojourner, which landed on Mars in 1997 as part of the NASA Pathfinder Project.Dr. Laghari has also been involved in the development of state-of-the-art high energy pulsed power storage devices, including those used for high powered lasers, particle beams and kinetic energy weapons.
Dr. Laghari was the Chairman of the 1992 IEEE International Conference on High Voltage Engineering, USA, and has organized many International Conferences and chaired numerous Sessions and Workshops in the United States. He has also served as the Chairman of the Technical Standards Committee on Radiation Effects, and as the Representative on the United States Activities Board on Man and Radiation.
Dr. Laghari has a passion for writing and speaking. During his tenure at SUNY Buffalo, he published over 120 research papers and presented over 75 papers at International Conferences. He is also the author of an IEEE Standard and has published two Book Chapters and a Monograph.
As Senator and as Chairperson HEC, he delivered over 58 keynote lectures, including at The Clinton School of Public Service, The Brookings Institution, Woodrow Wilson International Center, The School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The European Union Parliamentary Conference and the Conference of the OIC Ministers of Higher Education & Scientific Research. The lecture at the Clinton School (out of 1000 lectures so far) has been the 3rd most watched program online.
In addition to the 58 keynote lectures, Dr Laghari has delivered 117 Chief Guest addresses, 62 invited lectures, 47 interviews published and over 93 TV interviews. Dr. Laghari has also published over 100 Op-Eds and articles in major newspapers and magazines. He has published three books on Leadership, one of Higher Education, and 7 of his articles have appeared in Newsweek magazine. He has also published four fiction-thrillers, including the best sellers “Ifrit” (currently under production for Netflix) and “Solomon’s Demon”, and is currently writing his fifth science fiction “God Chip”.
Dr Laghari is a Senior Member of the ACM, Senior Member of the IEEE, and Member of the New York Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Leadership Award, 1987, the IEEE Award for Leadership and Dedicated Services, 1994, and the coveted national award 'Tamgha-e-Imtiaz' conferred by the President of Pakistan in 1998.
Dr. Laghari is listed in the American Men and Women of Science, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in the East, Who’s Who in America and Who's Who in the World.
Email: jlaghari@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Dr. Javaid Laghari
Twitter: @jlaghari
Instagram: lagharijavaid/
Facebook: javaid.laghari.9
Web: www.laghari.org
