As an educational institution, the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), has gone through several development phases. Its being accorded degree-awarding status is yet another, and perhaps most important, landmark in its continuing evolution.

For the past three decades, PIEAS has served as the premier human resource development centre for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). It has conducted a wide variety of educational and training programmes. They have ranged from Ph.D. and Masters' level programmes in Engineering and Medicine, to shorter specialized courses for scientists, engineers and technical staff. Hundreds of its graduates today form the backbone of most of the important projects of PAEC.

In order to successfully implement its programmes, PAEC has had to develop expertise in a very broad spectrum of disciplines. Apart from nuclear engineering and nuclear medicine, they include areas such as control & instrumentation; computers and information technology; materials development and processing; thermal-hydraulics and mechanical structures; and optics and laser technology. For meeting our needs for highly trained manpower, initially a policy of large-scale training of personnel abroad was adopted. However, we realised that continued dependence on foreign training could become problematic in the years ahead and therefore, we gradually established a number of educational and training institutions to meet our major requirements.

PIEAS was our earliest and premier educational centres. Over the past 40 years, we have invested heavily in broadening its academic infra-structure to meet all of our diverse needs. However, we now felt that with all its facilities, it could not only provide manpower for PAEC, but could also fulfil many of the vital needs for quality education of the nation on a larger canvas. Having developed within a milieu of technology at the cutting edge, the unique traditions and experience that PIEAS brings with it, should enable it to play a distinctive role in the rapidly growing educational sector in the country. We hope that the opening up of PIEAS to the youth of the nation at large, will be yet another contribution of PAEC towards the goal of national self-reliance.

Here I must also acknowledge the vital role that Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has played in providing an academic umbrella for PIEAS through all these years. By acting as the affiliating University for all its degree programmes, it extended the support that was so essential for their implementation. I would like to thank the Vice-Chancellor and his colleagues, past and present, for their generous co-operation. I am confident that in the years ahead, as sister institutions that share many common goals and ideals, QAU and PIEAS will bring their mutual collaboration to an even higher plane.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the PIEAS faculty and staff on their achievements and also remind them that they must be prepared to face even greater challenges in the future. As they strive together to develop the full potential of their institution for the educational advancement of the country, they will need to harness all their capabilities. I am confident that they will be successful in their efforts.