I met Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman in 1994, on the occasion of the 19th IUPAC Symposium on the Chemistry of Natural Products, which was held in Pakistan, 16–20 January, organised by the Karachi H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry.
The H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, which I visited on that occasion, was already an advanced research institute and, under the direction of Atta, has become a centre of excellence for the study of natural organic substances in the world.
Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman joined the H.E.J. Institute in March 1969 after obtaining his Ph.D. in England from Kings College (Cambridge). He was appointed as the Co-Director in 1977 and as the Director starting from January 1990.
On the occasion of the IUPAC Symposium, I was able to appreciate the particular scientific stature of Atta, which was formed in his studies in the UK. But what struck me most were his great organisational skills and his great enthusiasm for research on substances of natural origin.
In 1992, Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman with the collaboration of Taylor & Francis founded a new journal with the name Natural Product Letters. This journal quickly established itself internationally as one of the research journals in the world devoted to recent developments, discoveries and theories on natural products. Under the editorial responsibility of Atta, it changed its name to Natural Product Research and now many advanced studies scientifically approaching the traditional knowledge of natural organisms (plants, microbes, etc.), especially in the East area of the world, are first reported in Natural Product Research. The journal also presents a large part of the important recent works on biologically active natural products of terrestrial and marine origin.
In 2008, Atta asked me to assist him in the editorial management of Natural Product Research as Regional Editor and I accepted with enthusiasm. In 2010, when Atta decided to leave the journal, I took editorial responsibility, trying to keep the editorial line proposed by Atta and extending the circulation of the journal also in the West area of the world.
It is therefore with great satisfaction that we have organised, together with Prof. M. Iqbal Choudhary and with the full cooperation of Taylor & Francis, this special issue dedicated to Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman.
So I hand over to Prof. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, to sketch the profile of Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman and the key moments of his scientific career.