Winner 2022

Dr. Hamad Alizai is an exceptional computer science teacher who makes enduring contributions to his peers’ and his students’ learning. His commitments to improving teaching through the Learning Institute demonstrates exceptional educational leadership. To his students, Dr. Hamad “…has the gift of teaching. He has the rare ability to truly light up the classroom with inspiration.” Whether it is through peer teaching, novel discussion techniques, authentic assessments, or technology, he engages students at every level and inspires them with unwavering support and creative energies. Dr. Alizai works meticulously to give students space in class to collaborate, engage, and learn. Frequent student feedback informs his teaching and is another indication that he puts student learning first. As one student highlighted, “It is not always easy to change students' lives, so it takes a great teacher like Dr. Alizai to do so. He is a true role model for all his students, and I learned the meaning of learning’ from him.” Dr. Alizai is deeply dedicated to learning and to sharing that learning to help others to grow and develop – and this makes him one of LUMS most treasured teachers.

Winner 2022

Dr. Haniya Azam is recognised by her students and colleagues at LUMS and young students who participate in Math Circles, as an exceptional teacher dedicated to helping all students master mathematics. She identifies students’ anxiety about mathematics and then takes them on a journey to build their understanding of (often abstract) mathematical concepts. She does this through meticulous design of her courses, engaging lectures and demonstrations, and a range of assessment tasks and feedback. Dr. Azam invests in building learning environments inside and outside the classroom where all students feel welcome to engage, to question, and feel supported to learn. As one student said, “Dr. Azam is one of those educators who takes interest in and supports students’ personal and professional development. For an institution like LUMS where students come from diverse backgrounds, instructors like Dr. Azam make this journey invigorating and rewarding.” This is a true testament to Dr. Azam’s unwavering commitment to going above and beyond to help her students to learn.

Winner 2022

Dr. Imran Cheema’s philosophy of teaching is grounded in his overarching goal to “stimulate joy in students’ learning experiences” and cultivate “ah ha” moments where their learning becomes visible. As one student proudly shared, “he inculcated this sense of intellectual and scientific curiosity which was highly infectious… he would encourage me to cross more boundaries in my intellectual journey and expand my knowledge.” Dr. Cheema’s excellence in teaching electrical engineering has been recognised by students and colleagues for its academic rigor and how he engages students to help them learn complex mathematical and scientific concepts. Whether he is using real life examples, visualisations and demonstrations or metaphors, he aims to reach all students and help them to learn. Dr. Cheema’s incorporation of varied assessment techniques and his responsiveness to regular student feedback on his teaching and course design help to ensure that student learning is at the heart of his teaching. He is without a doubt one of LUMS’ most highly effective instructors, and a caring mentor who enthusiastically inspires students to love complex subjects of engineering and science.

Winner 2022

Dr. Rahman Saleem is an outstanding science teacher who uses innovative pedagogical approaches to keep students excited about learning Chemistry. He makes complex theoretical content meaningful to students by encouraging multi-dimensional, out-of-the-box thinking through a variety of assessments and engaging learning activities. From tracing the historical evolution of concepts, to highlighting cutting-edge research and dominant unanswered questions, he transforms theory into applicable, real-world problems for his students to solve. As one student commented, Dr. Saleem, “…was one of those few instructors who focused on understanding rather than covering the course content” and has been a kind and caring mentor whose “…one-to-one interaction did not stumble even in quarantine as he was always one message away…” His commitments to student mentorship and partnership are clear indicators of Dr. Saleem’s dedication to helping students become the next generation of scientists who can make a difference in Pakistan and beyond.

Winner 2022

Dr. Zahid Ali is guided by the idea that teaching is his “gateway to learning”. He continuously ignites his students’ natural curiosity to learn through engaging storytelling that makes economics come to life. Dr. Zahid has also developed a unique problem-solving model that guides students in approaching complex and abstract concepts through intuition, mathematical foundation, and graphical representation. His novel teaching methods and attention to giving feedback are making a sizable difference to his students’ learning. As one student can attest, Dr. Zahid has “changed my perspective towards macroeconomics… and [we] respect you so much because you have given us a level of knowledge that we wouldn't have found anywhere else. I've never had a teacher put in such level of effort in making sure that their students get the concepts.” The support and mentoring that Dr. Zahid has offered students and colleagues over his 20 years at LUMS has been exceptional. His dedication to meaningful and enduring learning is unparalleled – he has truly evolved to be one of the most outstanding student-centered teachers at LUMS.

Winner 2021

Ali Raza is a historian specializing in the history of modern South Asia. He received his DPhil from the University of Oxford and was a research fellow at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. His research and teaching interests include the social and intellectual history of South Asia, comparative colonialisms, decolonization, and post-colonial theory.

Ali Raza's work has appeared in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies; Itinerario; South Asian History and Culture; and Contemporary South Asia. He is also the co-editor of The Internationalist Moment: South Asia, Worlds, and World Views, 1917-39 (Sage 2014), and the author of Revolutionary Pasts: Communist Internationalism in Colonial India, forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

Winner 2021

Dr. Zubair received his B.Sc. (First-class Hons.) degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering & Technology (UET), Lahore, Pakistan in 2008. He received his Ph.D. degree in Engineering from the Australian National University of Canberra, Australia in Aug. 2013. Previously, he was working as an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department, UET Lahore. Prior to that, he worked as a Research Fellow (Post-doc) with Prof. Rodney A. Kennedy in the Research School of Engineering, Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, Australia. He was awarded University Gold Medal and Industry Gold Medals from Siemens and Nespak for overall outstanding performance in Electrical Engineering during his undergraduate studies. He was also a recipient of an Endeavour International Postgraduate Award during his Ph.D. studies.

Winner 2021

Angbeen Atif Mirza is an Assistant Professor at the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law, LUMS. She holds a B.A., LL.B from LUMS (2008), and an LL.M from the University of Michigan Law School (2010). She is the Faculty Director for the LUMS Office of Accessibility and Inclusion. She also serves on the Board of Digital Rights Foundation, a cyber rights organization.

Angbeen’s primary area of interest lies in clinical legal education, specifically street law, live client clinics, and access to justice work. She supervises a street law programme at SAHSOL where students are responsible for weekly legal awareness sessions with secondary school students, and is working at the law school to build its clinical programmes. 

She has been involved in human rights work in various capacities including public interest litigation, research, advocacy, as well as trainings for judges and police staff, awareness sessions for students and preparation of community outreach material.

Winner 2021

Muhammad Tariq received his PhD in Molecular Cell Biology from Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Switzerland. During his PhD, he worked in Jerzy Paszkowski's lab specializing in epigenetics of gene silencing in Arabidopsis.

He led the development of departmental vision and mission, curriculum and recruitment of one of the finest team of faculty in Pakistan who specializes in Cell and Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics, Microbiology and Biochemistry. In addition, he also led the development of biology research and teaching programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. He has developed first epigenetic research lab in Pakistan which uses Drosophila to teach basic concepts of genetics, epigenetics and development. He has taught several courses at LUMS which include Genetics, Developmental Biology, Molecular Biology, Gene regulation and Epigenetics, Fundamentals of Molecular Techniques and Methods lab in Molecular Biology.  

Winner 2021

Momin Uppal received the B.S. degree in electronic engineering with highest distinction from GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Pakistan, in 2002. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, in 2006 and 2010, respectively. He spent the summers of 2009 at NEC Labs of America, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey as a research assistant, and the summers of 2012 at Texas A&M University Qatar as a visiting researcher. He has been associated with the LUMS School of Science and Engineering since October 2010.