Dr. Umer Khayyam (RID: AAI-1988-2020) is currently serving as an Associate Professor and Head/Chairperson of Development Studies Department at the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) Islamabad, Pakistan (since, Sep. 2016).
He has Ph.D. from WW University of Münster, Germany (2016), MA from the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück, Germany (2012), and MA from COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan (2008).
He has over 10 years of working experience (academics, research, leadership) at Higher Education and UNO/NGOs. He has on his credit an Eds. Book: Planning in Germany and Pakistan: Responding to the Challenges of Climate Change through Intercultural Dialogue. Publisher: Mensch und Buch Verlag. Berlin (2023) and more than 45 scientific journal papers and book chapters with Palgrave, Springer, and Elsevier, besides conference proceedings of international repute. His articles appear frequently in Newspapers/Magazines on contemporary developmental and climate change issues and Book Reviews in different journals' issues. He has supervised over 30 MS/Masters and Ph.D. research dissertations and sofar served as an Official Discussant/External Evaluator for over 20 dissertations in different universities. At NUST, he is leading the research group: Development & Climate Change (DCC).
He is an Editorial member of the International Journal of Regional Development (USA), Editor of DNews (annual newsletter), and reviewer of several scientific journals listed by Elsevier, WMI, MDPI, Springer Nature, and others. He is also a reviewer of the research (grant) proposals and a member of the Institutional Performance Evaluation (IPE), and Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), all at the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan. He has the honor to be a member of the National Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC) in the disciple of Development Studies. He has also assisted NUST Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities (NJSSH) (HEC Pak.-Y between 2018-2021) as an Associate Editor. He is also a member of the Development Studies Association (Ireland), the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes-EADI (Germany), and the International Society for Development and Sustainability (Japan).
He has won several awards/scholarships:
- Partial Ph.D. Scholarship (2015) by HEC Pakistan,
- DAAD Matching Fund & DAAD Research Grant (2014),
- DAAD-PPGG MS Scholarship for German Language Course and MA Studies (2010-12) and
- COMSATS Abbottabad (Pakistan) Partial M.Sc. Scholarship (2006-08).
He has won several national/intl. grant projects funded by:
- Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan,
- UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (through the Global Challenges Research Fund),
- DAAD Germany.
In recognition of his excellence in teaching, he is awarded with Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), United Kingdom, whereas due to his research eminence, he is awarded the NUST/University Best Researcher Award 2020.
His areas of expertise and engagements are extended to Development Studies, Climate Change, Human-Environment nexus, DRR, and Sustainability.