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By: Anonymous

A major milestone in Physics, surfaced on 11 February, 2016, labeled discovery of the century. 

LIGO-VIRGO collaboration enabled the realization of Einstein’s Gravitational Waves. Right after the discovery, social and electronic media reported that a 25 year old Pakistani scientist namely Imran Khan from Quetta has proved Einstein’s theory, without taking into account the facts and figures. An immense applause was credited to Mr. Imran who in fact had recently joined a PhD program in November, 2015. Similarly, a full professor of Physics at MIT Nergis Mavalvala of Pakistani origins deservedly made it to the television screens as well.

Via: Express Tribune

LIGO-VIRGO collaboration has 133 research groups and over 1000 researchers working towards it for more than the past 35 years.

Pakistani social and electronic media is flooded with the wrong notion that Mr. Imran and Dr. Nergis Mavalvala a full professor of Physics at MIT are the only Pakistani origin scientists associated with this feat.

However, if the list of authors of the research paper is thoroughly investigated, one can find another Pakistani origin scientist, named Dr. Muzammil A. Arain;, however he was unable to make it to our TV screens or Facebook timelines.

Following are some facts and figures related to Dr. Muzammil and Mr. Imran.

1) Muzammil A. Arain:

via: University of Central Florida

Muzammil A. Arain completed his B.S from N.E.D UET, Karachi in 1998. He received his M.S and Ph.D in 2002 and 2005 respectively, in Optics from University of Central Florida, USA. From his publications it is evident that he has been actively involved in this project since 2008 or earlier, while his LinkedIn profile substantiates that he has been working in the LIGO collaboration in University of Florida since 2005. His research profile would tell you that he had a considerable role to play in the installation of LIGO interferometers. As Dr. Muzammil has chosen not to contact the media, his contributions far greater than Mr. Imran Khan are neglected and not highlighted on any platform.

2) Imran Khan:

Via: Express Tribune

Completed his B.S from NUCES, Peshawar in 2011 in Telecommunication Engineering. He joined Koc University, Istanbul in 2013 to pursue M.S in Optoelectronics and Photonics Engineering. His Master’s thesis defense was dated in September, 2015. Mr. Imran joined Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), Italy as an Early Stage Researcher, on the Marie Curie fellowship for PhD in Astroparticle Physics on 4 November 2015.

The paper associated with this discovery, published in Physical Review Letters titled, “Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger” endorses that the scientific discovery, was made on September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC. It is evident from records that at the time of discovery,  Mr. Imran, was still at Istanbul busy with the necessary thesis work and the university clearance. The joining date at GSSI, Italy  can be verified from his LinkedIn profile, which substantiates that he left for Italy on November 4th.

Via: Dawn

The facts and figures are contrary to the claim that his contributions to the project is experimental work.

With these facts established,  the main question is, how did he contribute to the project while vacationing in Quetta, in between leaving Istanbul and joining Italy?

The irony is, that a person with minimal contributions to this research has been raised to the level comparable to fellow Pakistanis, Dr. Nergis and Dr. Muzammil who have spent decades of research and contributed heavily to this discovery. An average Pakistani, with absolutely no regard to the facts is portraying Mr. Imran as a national hero, with some media outlets solely accredited him to the discovery of Einstein’s gravitational waves.

Mr. Imran who has recently joined his group in  order to gain a PhD has been dubbed a scientist and the brain behind this marvelous discovery. The main reason for his inclusion in the list of 1000+ authors is that he is right in time and a current member of the research group associated with LIGO-VIRGO collaboration. As researchers associated with any of the 133 active research groups were added to the list of authors. The media has a record of making mountains out of mole hills, who can forget Agha Waqar who claimed to have invented a Car-kit that uses water as a fuel, violating the second law of thermodynamics. Similarly, Mr. Imran who has the least relevance in the project is getting attention, with some people on the social media going as far as demanding universities in Pakistan to award him an honorary doctorate.  It is not only unfair to the more closely associated Pakistani scientists like Dr. Muzammil who has yet to make it to our television screens and social media accounts, but at the same time it is setting a wrong precedent in the scientific community. Media should take necessary measures to acknowledge the efforts of a real Pakistani scientist i.e., Dr. Muzammil.

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