Information
Membership Number: FCA2122
Membership Type: Fellowship
Division: Natural Sciences
Corresponding Email: s.m.qaim@fz-juelich.de
Homepage(s): https://twas.org/directory/qaim-syed-muhammad
https://iasworld.org/node/185
Professor Syed Muhammad Qaim, a German national of Pakistani origin, has been working for the last 60 years on several aspects of “radionuclide research”. Depending on new emerging medical needs, he has all along been attempting to develop newer technologies for the production of novel radionuclides up to the stage of clinical scale production and, if possible, to transfer the new technology to the industry for large-scale production of those radionuclides. Thereby the accompanying fundamental work was also paid considerable attention.
Syed Qaim´s activities have been mainly related to research and development (R and D) work. However, since his mid-career he has also been engaged in teaching, propagation, and internationalization of science, and last but not least, in providing development aid to Third World Countries. Those four aspects are briefly described below, along with a few other smaller activities.
Present and Previous Positions
Oct. 1964 - Oct. 1966 Research Associate, Birmingham University, England
Oct. 1966 - Oct. 1968 Senior Scientific Officer, Atomic Energy Centre, Lahore, Pakistan
Oct. 1968 - Oct. 1970 Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Mainz University, Germany
Oct. 1970 – Jan. 2006 Forschungszentrum Jülich, FRG
- from 15 October 1970 to 30 November 1975, Scientist (Grade BAT Ib)
- from 1 December 1975 to 31 May 1985, Group Leader (Grade BAT Ia)
- from 1 June 1985 to 31 January 2006, Division Leader (Grade BAT I)
- from 1 August 1995 to 1 March 1996 worked as Acting Director of the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry, and from 1 March 1996 to 31 January 2006 as theVice-Director.
April 1997 to July 2013, Professor of Nuclear Chemistry at the University of Köln
February 2006 to date, Advisor, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine-5, Nuclear Chemistry, Forschungszentrum Jülich
Present activities
· After retirement, invited to work as Guest/Advisor in his old Institute in Jülich, Germany, with additional duties of coordination of international activities.
· Regular teaching of applied nuclear science in a European Master’s Course at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Jülich Campus (since 2003).
· Special lectures at GC University Lahore as Honorary Professor (since 2003).
· Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Radiochimica Acta (since 1996)
· Advisory services to PAS, IAS, TWAS, and WCI.
High international responsibilities
· Chair of the International Nuclear Data Conference held in cooperation with the IAEA and OECD-NEA at KFA Jülich in May 1991
· Co-Chair of the 6th International Conference on Nuclear and Radiochemistry, Aachen, September 2004
· Scientific Secretary of the 17th International Symposium on Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, Aachen, April/May 2007
· Co-Chair of the Eurochem 8th International Conference on Nuclear and Radiochemistry, Como, Italy, September 2012
· Scientific Secretary of the OECD-NEA-Nuclear Data Committee, Paris, 1980-1983
· Chair of the OECD-NEA-Nuclear Data Committee, Paris, 1988-1991
· Vice-Chair of the OECD-NEA-Nuclear Science Committee, Paris, 1996-2000
· Chair of the International Nuclear Data Committee of the IAEA, Vienna,2002-2008
· Co-Director of International Workshops on Nuclear Data for Medical Applications, Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy (1999, 2007, 2013)
· Editor-in-Chief of the international journal “Radiochimica Acta”, 1996 – to date
· Member Scientific Advisory Council, Budapest Neutron Centre, 2001 – 2010
· Member Scientific Advisory Council, Peking University, 2010 – 2012
· Member Panel of Experts for judging special research grant applications, DOE Washington, D.C., USA, 2016
· Chair of the Education and Training Committee of the World Council on Isotopes (WCI), Korea (2020 to date)
· Member of the Nuclear Data Subgroup of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) of USA (2022)
· Tutor of IAEA-WCI-KAERI e-learning Courses on Radionuclides and Radiopharmaceuticals held twice a year at Seoul, Korea (2021 to date)
Fields of Scholarship and Research Interests
Mössbauer spectroscopy; Nuclear spectroscopy; Analytical radiochemistry;
Fission chemistry; Cyclotron production technology of medical radioisotopes;
Nuclear data for technology; Fundamental studies on nuclear reactions.
Honors, Awards and Other Membership
- Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry, London (1974)
- Fellow, Institute of Physics, London (1974)
- Roland Eötvös Medal and Honorary Fellow of the Hungarian Physical Society (1988). The medal was given in recognition of fundamental nuclear studies, for the first time to a nuclear chemist.
- JARI Award Medal 1990. This international award and prize, sponsored by the Pergamon Press, was given in Princeton(USA) in recognition of “outstanding contributions to the fundamental understanding of nuclear reactions and to the development of charged particle reactions for the production and separation of short-lived radionuclides for medical use”.
- Foreign Fellow, Pakistan Academy of Sciences (1990).
- Fellow, Islamic World Academy of Sciences (1994).
- Title: "Civis Universitatis honoris causa", translated as Honorary Citizen, awarded by the Kossuth University, Debrecen, Hungary (1995). First recipient of the award.
- Foreign Fellow, Pakistan Nuclear Society (1997).
- Foreign Fellow, Pakistan Institute of Chemists (1998).
- Civil Award: „Sitara-i-Imtiaz“ by the President of Pakistan (1999), for services to the cause of Science in Pakistan.
- Title: „Doctor honoris causa“, translated as Honorary Doctorate, awarded by the Kossuth University, Debrecen, Hungary (1999).
- Fellow (from North), Third World Academy of Sciences (2001), for services to the cause of science in the Third World countries.
- Honorary Professor, Govt. College University, Lahore,Pakistan(2003).
- Medal of Honour of the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA) for long-standing co-operation in the development of science at the AEA (2005).
- Medal and Certificate of Merit of theEgyptian Association of Nuclear Physicists (EANP) for services to the cause of science inEgyptian universities (2005).
- Honorary Doctorate, awarded by the Yorker International University, New/York/Milan/Florence (2007).
- Hevesy Medal 2008. This international medal of the Committee on Modern Trends in Activation Analysis and the Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry was awarded in Budapest (Hungary) for “outstanding contributions to the field of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry”.
- Becquerel Medal 2008. This international medal of the Radiochemistry Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, was awarded in Loughborough (United Kingdom) in recognition of an “outstanding career in radiochemistry”. A one-day symposium was organized to honor of the recipient.
- Golden Jubilee Award. This special award was given by the international journal “Radiochimica Acta” during its 50th-anniversary celebration in 2012 in Como/Italy for “outstanding lifetime contributions to the journal in the areas of fundamental nuclear chemistry, nuclear data for applications and accelerator production of medical radionuclides”.
- Medal of Honour of Rajshahi University, Bangladesh (2013) “for long-term scientific cooperation and moral and intellectual guidance in the development of teaching and research”.
- Medal of Honour of Government College University Lahore, Pakistan (2018) “for his 15 years of outstanding honorary services to the Department of Physics, GCU Lahore”.
- President´s Award of the World Council on Isotopes (WCI) during the 11th International Conference on Isotopes (11 ICI) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (2023) “for lifetime work on the development of radioisotopes”.
Selected Publications
424 research and review papers, 4 book chapters, 19 general articles, 5 books (as editor), 1 book (as alone author), national and IAEA reports, etc. (see the attached CV)
Books
(i) S.M. Qaim, M.H. Hashmi, B.A. Khokhar, M.S. Hashmi and A. Samad
Chemistry Text Book for Secondary Classes (9th class)
- in Urdu - (Author of 4 chapters and Editor) West Pakistan Text Book Board, Lahore, April 1968 and several later reprints till 1977, XX + 135 pp, several million copies
(ii) S.M. Qaim (Editor)
Nuclear Data for Science and Technology (Proc. Int. Conf. held at Jülich, May 1991), Springer Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg, 1992, XXXII + 1031 pp
(iii) S.M. Qaim (Editor)
Nuclear Data for Medical Applications Special Issue of Radiochimica Acta, Vol. 89, pages 189 - 355 (2001), Oldenbourg Verlag, München
(iv) S.M.Qaim and H.H. Coenen (Editors)
Advances in Nuclear and Radiochemistry (Extended Abstracts of NRC-6), Forschungszentrum Jülich, (2004) ISSN 1433-5565, ISBN 3-89336-362-9, xxx1 + 793 pp
(v) S.M. Qaim, F. Tárkányi and R. Capote (Editors)
Nuclear Data for the Production of Therapeutic Radionuclides Technical Reports Series No. 473, IAEA, Vienna, 2011, 358 pp
(vi) S.M. Qaim (Author)
Medical Radionuclide Production – Science and Technology Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2019. ISBN 978-3-11-060156-5, xIl + 289 pp
Other Information
Particulars of Syed M. Qaim.docx
a) Research and Development
While working at Liverpool University for his Ph.D., Qaim utilized the 340 MeV synchro-cyclotron and discovered several exotic new radionuclides, among them I-120, which is today of medical interest. At Birmingham University, as a research associate, he produced Co-57 at the cyclotron, incorporated it in 32 different metallic lattices, and studied the isomer shifts. That classical work is of interest today in interpreting metallic properties. After spending two years at the Atomic Energy Centre, Lahore, Pakistan, as a radiochemistry researcher, he worked for two years as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Mainz University, Germany, measuring independent yields of some radionuclides formed in the fission of 232Th, 233U, and 239Pu. Qaim was appointed in 1970 at the Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), Germany, to build a research group in applied nuclear chemistry. The first studies were more of a fundamental nature. Through ground-breaking interdisciplinary experimental and theoretical studies he could show, measure and quantify the products of exotic reactions like (n,t) and (n,3He), partly together with the experimental group in Debrecen (Hungary) and the theory group in Vienna (Austria). The Hungarians awarded Qaim the “Eötvös Medal” for outstanding fundamental work. The data obtained were unique and find application today in neutron therapy as well as in fusion reactor technology. In many cases, they are still the only data available.
From 1975 onwards, Qaim´s research group got increasingly engaged in the development of production technologies of the emerging radionuclides for Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET), using the three cyclotrons available at FZJ, namely JULIC, CV28 and BC1710. His group excelled in data measurements, chemical processing procedures, high-current irradiation technology and large-scale production of the SPECT radionuclides Br-77, I-123, and Tl-201. The solid target technology for the production of the SPECT-radionuclides I-123 and Tl-201 at 30 MeV cyclotrons was adopted by the industry. In later years, the I-123 production technology was shifted to the use of the highly enriched Xe-124 gas target. The basic nuclear data for the Xe-124(p,2n)Cs-123/I-123 process were experimentally measured at FZJ, and the technology was developed at Karlsruhe/Vancouver.
The development of PET technology was associated with some difficulty. Till the early 1980s, the Jülich group, like several others, could produce the short-lived radionuclides C-11 and O-15 using gas targets for the preparation of radiopharmaceuticals for patient studies, but a real breakthrough was missing. The production of the F-18 was difficult. Based on the BNL idea to use the low-energy O-18(p,n)F-18 reaction, the Qaim group did extensive nuclear studies and developed an intermediate pressure low-volume highly-enriched water target that could produce large quantities of F-18. Furthermore, a sister Radiopharmaceutical Group in the Institute developed a new synthesis of FDG via nucleophilic substitution (Hamacher synthesis). This brought a revolution because the most commonly used radiopharmaceutical, 2-F-18-FDG, could now be easily produced in large quantities. The propagation of the expertise was supported by a COST program of the EU and today a large number of PET centres are being established. Thus the FZJ contributed appreciably to the development of this technology, with Qaim´s group sharing the credit for nuclear and technological development. A big monograph was written in 1992 on PET Radiopharmaceuticals under the EU, with Qaim as the lead author of the chapter on production technology. Syed Qaim was also awarded the prestigious “JARI Medal Award 1990” in Princeton, USA, by Pergamon Press (today it is Elsevier). This high recognition established Syed Qaim as an authority in the field of Medical Radionuclide Technology.
It may be emphasized that today PET technology is reaching all countries of the world, mainly because large quantities of F-18 can be easily produced at small medical cyclotrons, which are being installed in large numbers in hospital environments, thanks to the technology initially developed at FZJ.
With the increasing significance of PET in medicine, from 1990 onwards, Qaim´s group started devoting intensified efforts to the development of metallic positron emitters which have longer half-lives and different labeling chemistry. They are needed to investigate slow metabolic processes and to quantify the dose via PET in internal radionuclide-targeted therapy. These metallic “non-standard” positron emitters demand a deep knowledge of nuclear reaction data because of the existence of some isomeric states that are experimentally difficult to measure and theoretically hard to explain. Through versatile techniques of handling highly enriched target material, its irradiation and chemical processing (including target recovery), and combining the techniques of quality control, Qaim´s group has made a great impact. With the appropriate use of theory, the formation of both ground and isomeric states could also be described. Among all the developed non-standard positron emitters, Cobalt-55, Copper-64, Yttrium-86, Zirconium-89, Technetium-94m, Iodine-120 and Iodine-124 are of greater significance. With those research contributions, Qaim´s group was established as a leading center in radionuclide development, and it has maintained the lead for more than 30 years. This was strengthened through occasional critical reviews by Qaim, analyzing the existing situation and suggesting newer investigations. Furthermore, the methodologies developed at FZJ for the production of Copper-64, Yttrium-86, and Iodine-124 at small cyclotrons are being adopted by several cyclotron supplying companies. Most of the non-standard positron emitters developed to date allow brain and other organ studies, quantification of dose in internal therapy, and radioimmunotherapy. From there emerged the concept of the “theranostic approach” which was first proposed by Qaim in 1993 together with the Medical Group. It is called today “Personalized Medicine”. The researches of Syed Qaim in the area of radiochemistry related to the development of radionuclides were recognized through the award of the international “Hevesy Medal” in Budapest, Hungary, in 2008, and his whole lifetime work was honored by the award of the “Becquerel Medal” of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, also in 2008. Very recently, in 2023, the World Council on Isotopes (WCI) conferred on Qaim the President´s Award for his outstanding lifetime work on radioisotopes.
The results of all the above-mentioned scientific research activities are described in 424 original and review articles (see separate list). According to the Web of Science, the total citations are 10221, and the h factor is 52. The citations in the nuclear technology field are generally not as high as in many other areas. Nonetheless, 14 publications of Qaim have received more than 100 citations.
It is worth mentioning that, although 83 years old, Qaim is still robust and active. He participates in the planning of the experiments, advises younger colleagues in work, coordinates international cooperations, and actively contributes to the preparation of the manuscripts.
b) Teaching
1. After his “Habilitation” at the University of Cologne, Qaim was made “Privatdozent” in 1993 and appointed as Professor in Nuclear Chemistry in 1997. He introduced two new courses at the M.Sc. level.
(i) Nuclear data for science and technology
(ii) Radionuclide technology
2. In 2002/2003, he strongly advised the Aachen University of Applied Sciences, (Campus Jülich) Germany, to start a two-year European Master´s Course in Nuclear Applications (EMINA). The course was developed and accredited. Syed Qaim started regular lecturing in 2004 and is still actively engaged with 3 lectures/week. His lectures on “Nuclear Data” are a compulsory unit for all. The course has strongly grown with about 35 international students per batch.
3. In 2003, Syed Qaim was appointed an Honorary Professor of Physics at his old alma mater Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan. Several new courses in medical and radiation physics, radionuclides for imaging and therapy, applied radioactivity, standardization of nuclear data, etc. have been initiated. He still travels occasionally and gives some lectures.
4. TEMPUS Programme of EU. After the breakdown of the Iron Curtain in 1990, the EU provided massive educational aid to East European Countries. FZJ/Univ. Köln participated (1994-1998) with Debrecen University in Hungary. An exchange of teachers occurred. Syed Qaim helped develop several modern courses in Debrecen.
5. From 2006 to 2011, Syed Qaim served as a “Research Professor” of TWAS at Rajshahi University in Bangladesh. He made three visits, each of one month, and established a Master´s course on “Radionuclide Technology”. Furthermore, through the donation of an Am/Be Neutron Source by FZJ, and the regulatory support of BAEC, a small teaching laboratory in radioactivity was established.
c) Propagation and Internationalization of Science
Syed Qaim has always been interested in proper treatment and dissemination of knowledge to all for peaceful applications. He served as the German Member of the OECD-NEA-Nuclear Data and Nuclear Science Committees for many years. He therefore collected every year progress reports from about 12 institutes in Germany, compiled and edited them, and got them published as an NEA Report. It was widely distributed to all scientists in the field so that they knew what was being researched in Germany. This was done about 20 times.
Syed Qaim was also appointed as the German Member of the IAEA-Nuclear Data Committee. Through his efforts, the work of that Committee underwent a big change. Charged-particle data for medical applications were uplifted and given a higher priority. Through about 20 Consultants´ Meetings and Coordinated Research Projects (CRP) which Qaim could arrange because he had been elected as the Chair of the Committee for 6 years, the medical radionuclide data activity became very strong. Well-established nuclear data files are now available, which are accessible to all. They are used in all the new cyclotron laboratories and medical centers around the world, including developing countries. This has brought great prestige to the initiator of this activity, namely Syed Qaim.
In connection with the internationalization of science, Qaim`s group developed and maintained big cooperations with several established cyclotron groups, e.g. in Debrecen (Hungary), Kharkiv (Ukraine), Obninsk (Russia), PSI (Switzerland), Cape Town (South Africa), Chiba (Japan), Los Alamos (USA) and Berkeley (USA). Dozens of common publications came out.
d) Development Aid to Third World Countries
Because of his origin, Syed Qaim has had a special heart for scientists from developing countries.
· He provided research training to about 60 scientists/technologists from developing countries who came to FZJ.
· He lectured at several IAEA summer schools.
· Of special credit is Qaim´s work at Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, as Director of Workshops on Nuclear Data for Medical Applications three times (1999, 2007, 2013)
· Presently an online summer school on Radionuclides and Radiopharmaceuticals runs twice a year for participants from developing countries. It is supported by the IAEA, WCI and the Korean Government. Syed Qaim is a Tutor of the course and is heavily engaged in the activities.
Besides lectures and development of courses in developing countries, Syed Qaim vigorously pursued research projects in three countries.
a) Cyclotron project, Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo, Egypt.
Under the bilateral agreement between Egypt and Germany, training and expert visits occurred. The laboratory in Cairo is now well established and 15 joint publications have come out.
b) Activation group in INST of BAEC, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
With the financial support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany, a beam line has been constructed at LINAC, Activation cross section measurements can now be done in the low-energy region and 3 joint publications have arisen, one of them in Phys. Rev. C.
c) Nuclear data analysis group, GCUL, Lahore, Pakistan.
With the support of IAEA, ICTP Trieste, HEC Pakistan and FZJ, a theory-oriented nuclear data group has been established. It has reached international level and about 20 joint papers have been published.
For his strong support, Syed Qaim was awarded a Medal of Honour in each of those three countries.
Other services
· Qaim served as an Advisor to the European Neutron Centre in Budapest, to the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology of Peking University, and on a Panel of Experts for judging grant applications to the Department of Energy (DOE) in Washington D.C.
· As a Foreign Fellow, Syed Qaim is occasionally asked by PAS to review new candidates for election to the Fellowship of the Academy.
· Council Member of IAS for two consecutive terms (2009 – 2017)
· As a Fellow of TWAS from North, the academy often requests Qaim to
a) review new candidates for election to the Fellowship of TWAS
b) review applicants for TWAS prizes
c) review grant applications from young African scientists, to be funded by the German Ministry of Science and Technology through TWAS.
d) Editor-in-Chief Radiochimica Acta over the last 28 years. The impact factor has grown from 0.56 in 1996 to 2.08 in 2021. It is a hybrid open access journal. Syed Qaim strongly supports authors from developing countries, especially in language correction. There are no printing charges.
· Community work
As an old established Muslim, living in the small city of Jülich in Germany for more than 50 years, Qaim acts as a fatherly integrating advisor to the Islamic community “Islamische Gemeinde Jülich”, consisting of residents and new immigrants from about 20 Islamic countries. He is the person of trust between Muslims and the local city administration.
Syed Qaim is the Co-founder of a “Christian-Islamic Discussion Group” in Jülich. The aim is to inculcate interreligious tolerance and mutual understanding between persons of various religions and nationalities.
In summary, Syed M. Qaim has performed, on one hand, outstanding fundamental research (discovery of new radionuclides, measurement and correlation of energy shift of low energy gamma-ray in metallic lattices, characterization and quantification of very exotic trinucleon emission reactions, spin correlation of isomeric states, etc.) and, on the other, very elegant and accurate measurements on nuclear reaction cross sections relevant to accelerator-based production of medical radionuclides. Due to a combination of thorough and unique experimental work and high-class nuclear modeling, the FZJ became the leading institution in the world in the field of charged-particle data for medical applications. Another significant feature of this research has been the development of the technology to the stage of clinical scale production of a few important radionuclides. This was successfully done in the case of the standard radionuclides I-123, Tl-201, and F-18, which have been in the market now for more than 30 years. The development of F-18 has revolutionized positron emission tomography. In recent years, the technology developed at FZJ for the production of the non-standard positron emitters Cu-64, Y-86 and I-124 is being adopted by the industry. Furthermore, the concept of “theranostic approach” in nuclear medicine was first introduced by FZJ, which is developing fast in “Personalized Medicine” In addition to all those scientific activities, Syed Qaim has contributed extraordinarily to the standardization of medically oriented nuclear data under the umbrella of the IAEA, to the propagation of science, dissemination of knowledge and, above all, to the development of science in the Third World Countries. Details are given on the following pages.