RESEARCH AREAS OF PAKISTANI MATHEMATICIANS

Pak Math Soc Newsle, Issue 3, Vol  5, 2006

Production per year of research papers in mathematics has increased with the passage of time. In 1977 the first research paper out of an M.Phil. dissertation at Quaid-i-Azam University was published in an Indian journal. Incidentally it was a paper in the area of Group Theory and its Generalizations.  It was a produce of the first two-year M.Phil. in Pakistan. The author was Qaiser Mushtaq. Many years later, an upsurge in mathematical research even at M.Phil. level was seen. Nowadays, a large number of M.Phil. dissertations contain original research, which students publish in the form of paper(s) with joint authorship of their supervisors. 

The production of Ph.D.s has also increased since the first local Ph.D. was produced, again at Quaid-i-Azam University in 1971. With the increase in production of doctoral theses, the number of research papers has thus increased as well.

Another factor which has increased the production of mathematical research papers, is that universities have started giving money per paper per year. Productivity allowance per year has also contributed to an increase in research papers in science in general and mathematics in particular.

Yet another factor for the increase in mathematical research papers is that many Pakistani mathematicians who had left Pakistan for ‘greener pastures’ have been returning to Pakistan due to retirement from foreign universities on the one hand and due to lucrative salary offers from the Higher Education Commission on the other hand.

Where these factors have increased the production of mathematical research papers, they also have had adverse effects on the mathematical culture in the country. Multiplicity of authorship has increased. For instance, research papers from dissertations and theses contain authors other than the supervisors and supposedly the authors of the dissertations and theses. This has given way to bribery and nepotism in research. For example, if one is short of a few papers to qualify for a selection/promotion, he/she will befriend a researcher to have his/her name included in a research paper. Particular research groups have attained the character of mafias. Rehash of mathematical research has become an acceptable fashion. Certain branches of mathematics in which research is comparatively easier have become popular and those branches of mathematics which are considered mainstreams of research and in which research is difficult are becoming unpopular. There is no realization of this trend. Consequently, there is no effort on the part of universities authorities or most of the researchers or the Higher Education Commission to stop these practices. On the contrary, heads of these organizations are happy as they take pride in showing off the rise in the statistical data of ‘productivity’.

An analysis was conducted on the basis of data collected from the Mathematical Reviews of the American Mathematical Society with the purpose of seeing in which areas Pakistani mathematical researchers are producing papers. It has been observed that the following branches have been the main thrust of mathematical research in Pakistan:

Order, lattices, ordered algebraic structures (O5), Associative rings and algebras (16), Group theory and generalizations (20), Operator theory (47), Numerical analysis (65), Fluid mechanics (76), Statistical physics, structure matter (82), Relativity (83).