The keynote speaker for the 25th LUMS Convocation Ceremony – to be held on June 22, 2013 - will be Dr. Adibul Hasan Rizvi: surgeon, scholar, teacher, humanitarian, founder and director of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), a pioneer of ethical organ transplantation in Pakistan, and leader of the team of surgeons that conducted the first successful liver transplant in an infant in Pakistan (in 2003).
After completing his medical education in Karachi and further training in the United Kingdom, Dr. Rizvi returned to Karachi and set up the SIUT in 1972 as an 8-bed unit located in the Burns ward of Civil Hospital Karachi. Today, the SIUT is an independent Institute, run on individual and community donations, and globally recognized as one of the fastest growing urological and transplant centres of the region that provides its services free of charge to those in need. In 2012, over 850,000 patients were attended at SIUT, emergency care was provided to 95,000 patients, more than 200,000 dialysis sessions (25% of the country’s total dialyses) were carried out, 5000 lithotripsy sessions were held, and 7 million tests including tissue typing for transplantation were held. SIUT’s transplant unit has performed over 3800 successful kidney transplants since 1985.
Dr. Rizvi is the pioneer of cadaver organ transplantation in Pakistan. In 1994, the first cadaveric renal transplant in the country was successfully carried out by Prof. Rizvi and his team. Another milestone for transplantation in Pakistan was achieved in November 1998 with the first locally harvested cadaver organ donation and transplant. Dr. Rizvi has received national and international recognition for his expertise and service to humanity, including the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (1991), Monyhan Medal of Royal College of Surgeons of England (1991), the St. Paul’s Medal by the British Association of Urological Surgeons (1994), the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1998), the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (2000), the Hunterian Professorship from the Royal College of Surgeons of England (2003), the Lifetime Achievement Medal by The National Kidney Foundation of USA (2004), the Sheikh Hamdan Award for Volunteers in Humanitarian Medical Services (2004), and the Engro Excellence Award (2011).
While speaking about Dr. Rizvi’s pick as the speaker of convocation 2013, Dr. Adil Najam, LUMS Vice Chancellor, said, “Dr. Adibul Hasan Rizvi is one of those Pakistanis whose achievement we can all be deeply proud of. He embodies so many of the qualities that we at LUMS are committed to: educational and professional excellence, service to humanity, institution building, and most of all a constant and never ending resolve to do better and to leave real and positive impacts on Pakistani society.” The LUMS Vice Chancellor added that “ the LUMS community is proud and honored that Dr. Rizvi has accepted our invitation to be the keynote speaker at our 25th Convocation ceremony and we are sure that for the graduating class of 2013 he will be a memorable inspiration as he has been for so many, all through his career.”
The 25th Annual Convocation for LUMS graduates is likely to be the largest convocation ceremony in the University’s history, with over 800 students in the graduating class. LUMS has always invited the best in their respective fields as the speakers at their annual convocation ceremonies, including Oscar-winning documentary film-maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who was the Convocation speaker in 2012.
The list of all past LUMS Convocation Speakers can be accessed from here.
The first two classes graduated at a combined LUMS First Convocation Ceremony in 1989 that featured Ghulam Ishaq Khan, then President of Pakistan, as the speaker of the event. Other honourable speakers at LUMS include: Moin Qureshi, the Vice President of World Bank; Safi Qureshi, the CEO of AST Research; Dr. Nafis Sadik, the Executive Director of UNFPA; Prof. Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel Winner-Grameen Bank; Zia Chishti, the Chairman and CEO of The Resource Group (TRG); Farooq Kathwari, the President & CEO of Ethan Allen; Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi, Author and Humourist; Ahmed Rashid, Journalist and Author; Dr. Mehmood Khan, the Chief Scientific Officer of PepsiCo and Dr. Shahid Kardar, the Governor State Bank of Pakistan.
