The Biological Society of Pakistan (BSP), also known as the Biological Society of Pakistan, Lahore (BSPL) is an organization in Pakistan established to promote the learning and research of biology in the country. It was founded in 1949 by Dr. Sultan Ahmad, Dr. Muzzafar Ahmed, Dr. Abu Bakar, Prof. Ahsan-ul-Islam, and Prof. Waiz Hussain Bokhari, and is hosted by Government College in Lahore. The society receives funding from the Pakistan Science Foundation, part of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
History The Biological Society of Pakistan was founded in 1949 under the auspices of the Pakistan Association for the Advancement of Science, by a group of biologists in Lahore, working at the zoology and botany departments of Government College and Punjab University, which at the time were housed in the same Government College building. The society's founding charter states the objective of promoting the cause of biological sciences in Pakistan, by publishing an academic journal (to be called Pakistan Journal of Biology), holding meetings, seminars and conferences to discuss biological problems, and creating facilities for original research in biological sciences. The society was registered on 10 April 1955 under the Societies Act XXI of 1860 of the Punjab, with an initial membership of 142 scientists from across Pakistan. Mian Afzal Hussain was elected as the first president, with Nazir Ahmad as secretary and Sher Ahmad Lodhi as its treasurer. In 1955, the scientists and teachers working in the botany and zoology department at Government College and Punjab University decided to rename the society the Biological Society of Pakistan and to publish a regular research journal. Ahsan-ul-Islam was assigned the job of framing the bylaws of the society and M. Saleem was assigned the task of enrolling the members of the society. Sultan Ahmad with Muzaffar Ahmad took over responsibility for the publication of the journal.
Events The president of the society, Dr. Anwar Malik, spoke at the "First National Conference on Biology" at Government College, on 29 or 30 March 2002. The society collaborated with the Eco-Science Foundation at Government College University (GCU) to organize the third International Conference on Biosciences (ICBS-2018), focusing on sustainable food production, for three days starting on 9 May 2018. The chief organizer was GCU Professor Emeritus Dr. Ikram ul Haq, who was also the general secretary of the society. The society collaborated with the Centre for Plant Sciences and Biodiversity of the University of Swat, the Higher Education Commission, and the Pakistan Science Foundation to organize the three-day 5th International Conference on "Advances in Biosciences: Bridging the Gap between Research and Sustainable Development Goals" on 24–26 May 2022. The organizing committee for the conference included the society's president, Prof. Dr. Anwar Malik, and its Secretary-General, Prof. Dr. Ikram-Ul-Haq.
Publications
Biologia The society's official journal is Biologia, established in June 1955 as a collaboration between the departments of Botany and Zoology at Government College University, with its first editor-in-chief being Sultan Ahmad. It is published semi-annually, in June and December of each year. It has a print and linking ISSN of 0006-3096 and an electronic ISSN of 2313-206X. The content is in English, French, and German. It is indexed in AcadOF, Aqua Sci. & Fish Abstr., Aquacult. Abstr., BiolAb / Biol. Abstr., Bioresearch Index, BIOSIS Prev, CabiAb/CABI, ChemAb / Chem. Abstr., CSA, Curr. Adv. Ecol. Sci., CurCont, Deep Sea Res. & Oceanogr. Abstr., EMBiology, Environ. Sci. Pol. Mgmt., Field Crop Abstr., GeoRef, Ghealth, Google Scholar, Herb. Abstr., Hort. Abstr., IBIDS, IBR, IBZ, INIS AtomInd, Pakistan Current Contents, Rev. Arom. & Med. Plants, Rev. Plant Path., SCI / Sci. Cit. Ind. (coverage dropped), SCOPUS, Sherpa Romeo, Soils & Fert., Summon, VINITI, and ZooRec.
Monographs The society occasionally publishes monographs, the name of which is sometimes abbreviated as "Biol. Soc. Pak. Monogr." Identifiers for the series include ISSN 0523-6614; Hunt Institute 84573; and OCLC 2541119, 477906928, 768034099, 183401970, and 1289018384. They have published the following monographs as of 1998:
Other works The society also published Seventy five years History of Zoology by A. R. Shakoori and M. R. Mirza.
References
External links Biological Society of Pakistan Government College University, Lahore