Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Omar Abdul Rahman

Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Datuk Dr. Omar Abdul Rahman

Senior Fellow and Foundation President, Academy of Sciences Malaysia;

Adviser, Perdana School of STI Policy, UTM;

formerly Science Adviser to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's Fourth Prime Minister.

Emeritus Professor Academician Tan Sri Omar Abdul Rahman graduated BVSc from University of Sydney, Australia (1958), and obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, U K (1966). He started his professional career in 1960 in veterinary research, then in 1972, was appointed the Founding Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences in the newly established Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM), now Universiti Putra Malaysia. He was the first professor appointed by the Universiti. His last position at UPM was as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic.

He was appointed Science Adviser in the Prime Minister's Department in 1984, the first person to hold that position, and served until his retirement in 2001. As Science Adviser he served on a number of national committees including the National Development Planning Committee, the National Council for Scientific Research & Development, the National Information Technology Council and the National Telecommunication Council. He played a major role in the establishment of the following organisations:

• MTDC - Malaysian Technology Development Corporation
• MIGHT - Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology
• MIMOS - Malaysian Institute of Microelectronics System
• CTRM - Composites Technology (Research) Malaysia Sdn Bhd
• NSC - National Science Centre
• ASM - Academy of Sciences Malaysia
• MINDS - Malaysian Invention and Design Society, and
• Kumpulan Modal Perdana Sdn Bhd.

Internationally, he had served on the United Nation's Advisory Council for Science and Technology for Development (UNACSTD) and on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's Standing Committee on Science & Technology Cooperation (COMSTEC). He is the founding and current chairman of the London-based Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management (CPTM) Ltd.

He is a founding fellow of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS), a fellow of the The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), an Hon Fellow of the National Academy of Science of the Kyrghyz Republic, and the Founding President and Senior Fellow of the ASM.

Omar has received Honorary Doctorates from five overseas universities (Stirling, Melbourne, Guelph, Bristol and Queensland), and three Malaysian universities (UTM, UKM, UPM). He was bestowed the ASEAN Achievement Award(Science) in 1993, the Fook Ying Tung South East Asia Prize in 1998 and the Tun Abdul Razak Award (International Category) in 2000. He was the recipient of the Tokoh Akademik Negara award for 2010.