Canada’s Dalhousie University has named Qamar-uz-Zaman Professor Emeritus, conferring one of its most distinguished academic honours on the Pakistani agricultural scientist in recognition of his decades of work in agricultural mechanisation, precision agriculture and smart farming.
Prof. Dr. Qamar-uz-Zaman is the Vice Chancellor of Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) and a professor of precision agriculture at Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture in Nova Scotia. The Qamar-uz-Zaman Professor Emeritus appointment took effect on July 1, 2026, according to a statement issued by PMAS-AAUR, whose spokesperson Dr. Nadeem Ahmed Malik described the honour as a proud moment for the university and for Pakistan’s academic community.
Qamar-uz-Zaman Professor Emeritus: what the title means
Emeritus is a Latin word for a veteran who has earned an honourable discharge, and in university life it marks the close of a distinguished career rather than the end of a scholar’s connection with the institution. Universities confer the title of professor emeritus on retiring professors whose scholarship, teaching and service have been exceptional, and those who hold it commonly keep researching, writing and mentoring. Dalhousie describes its own professors emeriti in exactly those terms. The designation is honorary, carries no regular teaching load, and is granted to only a small number of academics.
Three decades of precision agriculture research
Dr. Zaman joined Dalhousie University as an associate professor in 2010 and became a full professor in 2014, holding the Precision Agriculture Research Chair in the Department of Engineering at the Faculty of Agriculture. His own education connects Pakistan and Britain: a BSc and an MSc in agricultural engineering from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, followed by a PhD in agricultural engineering from Newcastle University.
His best known invention is a variable rate sprayer system, patented in the United States, which uses sensors and computer vision to apply fertiliser and pesticides only where a crop actually needs them. Coverage of his Canadian Society for Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CSABE) awards credits the technology with cutting agrochemical use by 40 percent in Atlantic Canada’s wild blueberry industry, a saving for farmers and for the environment alike. At Dalhousie’s Agricultural Campus he founded the Atlantic Digital Agriculture Centre. His career record includes more than 50 major research and development projects, multi-million-dollar competitive research funding, over 125 peer-reviewed papers and an authoritative textbook on precision agriculture.
His Dalhousie research group works directly with growers, developing tools such as a wild blueberry management system demonstrated to farmers in training workshops. Across more than 25 years in teaching, research and extension, his career has included posts at the University of Florida in the United States and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in Japan, giving his work a genuinely global footprint.
In July 2025, CSABE gave him its Maple Leaf Award, the society’s highest distinction, and elected him a Fellow at the same time, citing his research, leadership, teaching and community service. Dalhousie also lists the Glenn Downing Award among his honours.
A mentor in Canada, an institution builder in Pakistan
Teaching runs through Dr. Zaman’s career as strongly as research. The CSABE award coverage records more than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows supervised to completion, over 250 seminars, workshops and conferences organised, and more than 100 keynote lectures delivered across five continents. Many of his former students now teach or lead research teams in North America, Europe and Asia.
His outreach has stayed close to the farm gate: extension events and field days for growers in Atlantic Canada, and hands-on workshops for Pakistani farmers adopting new technology, translating laboratory research into practices that rural communities can actually use.
As Vice Chancellor of PMAS-AAUR, he has applied the same institution building at home. He founded the Centre for Precision Agriculture and the National Centre for Industrial Biotechnology, modernised curricula around outcome-based education, supported new patent filings, and launched Pakistan’s first accredited micro-credentials in digital and precision agriculture, recognised by the Pakistan Engineering Council.
A bridge between Pakistan and Canada
The honour lands in a season of growing international recognition for Pakistani academia, which has also seen Quaid-i-Azam University climb into the world’s top 400 in the QS rankings. PMAS-AAUR says the recognition could strengthen academic and research collaboration between Pakistan and Canada, opening the way for joint research projects, scientific exchanges and cooperation in higher education, particularly in agricultural sciences. Few people embody that bridge more literally: the professor who holds Dalhousie’s precision agriculture research chair spends his working week leading a public university in Rawalpindi. The timing is apt, as ties between the two countries have been widening on several fronts, from a third round of investment treaty talks in Islamabad to a Pakistan and Canada memorandum on postgraduate medical education signed in Ottawa.
For students and young researchers in Rawalpindi, the Qamar-uz-Zaman Professor Emeritus title carries a simpler message: a career that began in Faisalabad’s classrooms can earn the highest respect of a leading Canadian university, and can bring that knowledge home to Pakistani farms and laboratories.
Sources
- Sub News: Dalhousie University confers professor emeritus title on Pakistani scientist
- The Public Purview: Dalhousie University confers ‘Professor Emeritus’ title on PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor
- Margalla Tribune: Prof. Zaman gets CSABE lifetime and Fellow awards
- Dalhousie University: Atlantic Institute for Digital Agriculture
- PMAS-AAUR: Vice Chancellor’s Office
- Photo: Prof. Dr. Qamar-uz-Zaman, via The Public Purview
Umar is an engineer by profession and a passionate writer by passion. He has a deep interest in sharing good news related to Pakistan and has been working hard to promote the positive image of his homeland. Umar has written numerous articles on various topics related to Pakistan, such as technology, sports, culture, and economy.