Rising Strength of Pakistani Americans in Academia
By Riaz Haq
CA

 

The recent appointment of Karachi-born Irfan Siddiqui as Chairman of the Physics Department at the University of California at Berkeley highlights the growing numbers of Pakistani-Americans in academia. Dr Siddiqui is among the top US experts in quantum computing. He is also the head of Lawrence Livermore Quantum Computing Lab at UC Berkeley.  Besides, he happens to be one of the architects of the United States Quantum Initiative backed by industry, academia and the federal government.

Pakistani-American Professor Dr Irfan Siddiqui, Chairman of Physics Dept at UC Berkeley

Besides  Dr Irfan Siddiqui , there are many other high-profile Pakistani-American academics. For example, astrophysicist Dr  Nergis Mavalvala  is the Dean of the School of Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).   Dr Asad Abidi is professor of electrical engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).Then there is economist Dr Asim Khwaja who is Director of the Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Dr Atif Rehman Mian is a professor of Economics, Public Policy, and Finance at Princeton University.  Lina Khan  was a professor at Columbia University Law School before she was named Chairperson of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by President Biden. Dr  Mark Humayun  is a professor of ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, and integrative anatomical sciences at University of Southern California (USC).  Dr Mansoor Mohiuddin  is professor of medicine and director of Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program at the University of Maryland.  Dr Adil Najam is a professor of International Relations and of Earth and Environment at Boston University. These are just a few of the high-profile Pakistani-Americans currently teaching at top universities in the United States. 

Dr Nergis Mavalvala and Riaz Haq

As of 2019, there were  35,000 Pakistan-born STEM  (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) workers in the United States, according to the American Immigration Council. They included information technologists, software developers, engineers and scientists. These figures do not include 12,454 medical doctors from Pakistan. 

Foreign-born STEM workers in America - American Immigration Council

Foreign-born workers make up a growing share of America's STEM workforce. As of 2019, foreign-born workers made up almost a quarter of all STEM workers in the country. This is a significant increase from 2000, when just 16.4% of the country’s STEM workforce was foreign-born. Between 2000 and 2019, the overall number of STEM workers in the United States increased by 44.5 percent, from 7.5 million to more than 10.8 million, according to the American Immigration Council .  (Riaz Haq is a Silicon Valley-based Pakistani-American analyst and writer. He blogs at  www.riazhaq.com )