LUMS 24th Convocation Ceremony will showcase Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy - Pakistan's first Academy Award Winner 2012, as the keynote speaker of the event, which will be held on June 23, 2012.
Obaid-Chinoy won the Short Documentary Category for her work, 'Saving Face' at the 2012 Academy Award, on Sunday, February 26, 2012. The film was co-directed by Daniel Junge. Her Oscar-winning piece highlights the acid-attack survivors in Pakistan and follows them in their fight to bring their attackers to justice. Also, it focuses on the work of British Pakistani plastic surgeon Mohammad Jawad, who helps them restore their faces and lives.
In 2010, Obaid-Chinoy’s work gained recognition in the form of an Emmy for her film 'Children of the Taliban'. She completed her Undergraduate Education from Smith College, which was then topped off with two Master's Degrees from Stanford University.
Obaid-Chinoy is a source of pride for Pakistan because of her distinguished work, which spoke volumes on the rarely spoken of tragedies, in Pakistan.
While speaking about Obaid-Chinoy’s pick as the speaker of convocation 2012, Dr. Adil Najam, LUMS Vice Chancellor, said, “Her work exemplifies qualities - social commitment and a pursuit of excellence - that we at LUMS hold very dear and which our own students aspire for.” He added, “As the keynote speaker at the 24th LUMS Convocation Ceremony she will serve as a role-model and source of motivation for our graduating class of 2012.”
The 24th Annual Convocation for LUMS graduates is likely to be the largest convocation ceremony in the University’s history, with as many as 700 students in the graduating class.
LUMS has always invited the best in their respective fields as the speakers at their annual convocation ceremonies and Obaid-Chinoy is another link of that chain. 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.
