The National Centre of Excellence in Physical Chemistry was establlished in July 1978 under an Act of parliament as an autonomous body to be administered by Federal Ministry of Educaion through University Grants Commission (now Higher Educaation Commission)
The management of the centre is supervised by a Board of Govermors comprising of eminent Scientists and representatives of Chairman.
The Centre is entrusted with the main task of establishing research facilities in Physical Chemistry leading to M.Phil and Ph.D degrees. A significant number of M.Phil and Ph.D's have qualified from this institution.
The total number of Ph.D produced until year 2012 are 78 while 169 M.Phil scholars have passed out. More than 600 research papers have been published in journals of both national and international repute since inception.
At the moment 33 Ph.D and 46 M.Phil students are enrolled. Other regular activities of the Centre include in-Service training programmes, symposia, seminars refresher courses for college teachers and so on. Collaboration in research and academic activities with a number of organizations has been developed, e.g. Nuclear Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Institute of Chemistry (University of Peshawar), PINSTECH, Islamabad, Agriculture University (Peshawar), Engineering University ( Peshawar), Islamia College University ( Peshawar ), PCSIR Laboratories ( Peshawar) etc.
Objectives:
The Centre was established in 1978 under the Act of Parliament raising the status of the National Institute of Physical Chemistry University of Peshawar to that of National Centre of Excellence in Physical Chemistry under the administrative control of a Board of Governors for the purpose of :
Goal oriented high level teaching and Research.
Training researchers for high level research
Establishing academic and reserch programs for M.Phil. & Ph.D degrees
Promotion and cooperation in intra-disciplinary research with other teaching and research establishments.
Arrangement of scientific conferences, seminars and refreshers courses for the development of teaching and research.
To conduct teaching and research in such particular discipline as is assigned to it by the Federal Government.
Mission Statement:
To improve the standard of teaching and research at the Centre to international level so that researchers graduating out of the Centre are capable of handling of future academic and research needs of the country.
Vision:
To enhance the quantity of research output.
To strengthen the existing academic and research facilities in the selected areas of research.
To initiate new programmes in the areas pertinent to the economic development of the country like:
i) Nanotechnology
ii) Superconductor technology
iii) Photocatalysis
iv) Material science
v) Composits
vi) Solid state batteries
vii) Advance OxidationTechnologies
To build national / international linkages with the universities of repute particularly of OIC & SAARC countries.
To transfer the Centre into world class institution of higher education and research in the field of physical chemistry in the next ten years.
Outcomes and Achievements:
The Centre, in spite of financial and other constrains, has so far achieved its goal to a reasonable extent in the field of teaching and research , as it has produced 78 Ph.Ds and 169 M.Phils (up to 2012):
These scholars have been awarded degrees in the following fields of specialization:-
Solution and gas phases kinetics.
Electrochemistry.
Macromolecular Chemistry.
Surface Chemistry.
Radiation and Photochemistry.
Tribology
Coal and Biomass as alternate fuel..
Polymer Chemistry
Heterogeneous Catalysis
Fine Particles Science
Advance Oxidation Processes for water treatment
The Centre has organized 79 seminars, 19 workshops and helped various other organizations to conduct their workshops, seminars and conferences in the Centre. In addition more than sixty seminars have been arranged locally by the Centres faculty, students and guests from all over the world.