By M. Khalid Rahman, DAWN Staff ReporterIT is not every day that you come across a Pakistani scientist who has worked for the United States space agency Nasa. A noted physicist who has taught and trained thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians, Dr Bashir A. Syed was here in Pakistan recently.
Now in his late sixties, he is as alert and active as he was in his younger years. He travels the world over to give lectures and make presentations on harnessing renewable energy resources and designing solar, wind and water energy projects.
Bashir Syed is vice-president, R&D, EnerTech Enterprises based in Houston, USA. He is a well-known physicist who has worked for Nasa and other research organizations for decades.
An alumnus of the DJ Sindh Government Science College, he taught there when Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan was a student.
In the United States he attended some of the most prestigious universities. He has been a Fulbright scholar, and a Nasa scholar. His first job was with the Rockwell International Science Centre where he worked on Support US-EPA Contract for Air Pollution Monitoring through Remote Sites.
He also worked for Control Data Corporation where he trained engineers in mainframes/miniframes and digital computer design. Then he joined General Electric where he was involved in microelectronics (design and fabrication of CMOS-SOS ICs, Ga-As monololithic), microwave ICs (MMICs), EW systems, phased array antenna design, optronics, and formulation of a military standard (MIL-Perf-38535) for procurement of ICs, SPICE Commitee and NSRE Commitee.
Bashir Syed has also worked for Nasa support corporations such as Ford Aerospace, Loral Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Science Applications International Corporation. All of them support International Space Station, the space shuttle, manned space programme for Mars, Deep Space Probes, etc.
During his stay in Karachi, Dawn Sci-tech World talked to him. When asked how he got involved in the Nasa work, Mr Syed said that “in 1989 General Electric where I worked decided that they no longer wanted to be in military business, and laid off scientist and technicians engaged in that field. One day, I received a call from a Nasa contractor and was offered a job. It was to support the building of International Space Station.”
Mr Syed played a major role in the project from the design phase till the construction phase. He also participated in the Space Shuttle Modification Programme “since the shuttle had developed some faults and the system had become very old.”
An interesting project Mr Syed worked on was development of the space probes. Since he is a specialist on cosmic radiation, he was in charge of space radiation effects on the space ship and its components.
“As you can understand, the equipment sent out in the space is badly damaged because of the radiatin to which it is exposed. Thsi readiation comes from the sun as well as cosmic rays. My job was to teach the negineers how to mitigate these effects so that this problem does not occur and if it does, how to rectify it.”
Mr Syed was also a member of the radiation safety committe which not only took care of the instruments and gadgets exposed to radiation but also effects of radiation on engineers and technicians who handled them.
He got retired in September 2002 but before his retirement did some research in recently emerging microtechnology, especially the carbon nanotubes.
“The carbon nanotubes are much stronger than Kapton, the material used in bulletproof vests.
Equipped with the knowledge that he gained from his job with the space programmes, he launched a business with three colleagues. His company provides ways to harness solar and wind energies. It is engaged in designing solar energy panels and working on projects related to solar heating as well as cooling systems.
“Right now we are involved in two major projects: one is on a small island off the coast of Tanzania where there is no electricity. They have asked us to prepare feasibility study that would eventually help in setting up a wind farmin order to provide electricity to a stadium.
“We are also working on another island in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Croatia. Over there too we have been asked to set up a wind farm.”
He believes that wind farms and solar energy are the right solutions to meet the power needs in Pakistan.
“There are two reasons for that. One is that by relying on fossil fuels we are increasing atmospheric pollution globally. As a result, earth warming is taking place. This is no fiction any more but a reality. In order to minimize that effect Pakistan has been given at least 20 million dollars from the United Nations Environmental Fund under the Kyoto Protocol.
“In addition, the Asian Development Bank has given funds to Pakistan to interdict renewable energy technologies. Moreover, fossil fuels are depleting and becoming more and more expensive.
“On the other hand, we have natural energy sources that are recyclable all the year round. For instance, the sun is always there five to eight hours a day. Of course at some places the sun is more suitable while at others the wind is the right choice.
“We are preparing feasibility studies in coastal areas such as Karachi and Gwadar where there is a lot of wind. At these places, big windmills can be set up successfully. At others, where the wind velocity is low, small wind mills should be set up to meet specific needs. A big windmill can generate three to four megawatts of energy.”
Can you estimate how big a windfarm would be needed to meet the power needs of a city the size of Karachi?
“Karachi’s electric supply cannot be entirely met with wind energy. The city already has fossil fuel power plants as well a nuclear power plant. The Alternate Energy Board in Islamabad has estimated that almost ten per cent of Karachi’s electrical energy needs can be met with renewable energy sources.”
Is it viable to use wave energy or geothermal energy for electric power supply?
“The wind energy and geothermal energy can be harnessed with very advanced technologies which are available only in developed countries.
“As for solar energy, it would be astounding to know that the Earth receives as much energy from the sun in one day which would suffice the needs for all the inhabitants of the planet for seven days.
“Solar cell technology is changing so rapidly that silicon solar cells which are most expensive to produce are being replaced by copper cells whose technology is being developed in France. Although the solar cells produced from copper only have a ten-year life, the difference in cost is considerable.’
About the ongoing debate on whether Pakistan needs big or small dams, Mr Syed said: “You don’t have to build huge dams and can rely on small dams wherever there are waterfalls. The technology is called micro-hydroelectric technology. This type of dams have been built successfully in China.”
in June - July 2005, when due to a fibre cut of SEAMEWE3 off Karachi , Pakistan lost all terrestrial Internet connectivity which resulted, in many cases, in a complete 12 day outage of services. This is a tribute to the increased redundancy of international fibre connectivity installed for Pakistan in the last few years. [
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