An international conference on mathematics and its applications Tuesday began at the Government College University Lahore to provide a platform to scientists, industrial professionals and academicians to exchange ideas and present their latest research in the field of mathematical Sciences. Besides 61 national scientists and research scholars, as many as 11 foreign scientists from US, South Africa, Turkey and Thailand are also presenting their papers at the three-day conference organised by the university’s Mathematics Department in collaboration with the federal and provincial higher education commissions. GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah chaired the inaugural session of the conference which was also addressed by Prof Dr Roumen Anguelov from University of Pretoria, South Africa and Prof Ekram Savas from Van Yüzüncü Y?l University, Turkey. In his address, Prof Anguelov said that mathematics was very a vast field of science but unfortunately youth studied mathematics without knowing its applications which resulted in decline in their interest as well as understanding. Prof Abdon Atangana from South Africa, one of the youngest professors of mathematics in the world at the age of 30, is also attending the conference. Sharing his experiences at the inaugural ceremony, Prof Atangana asked students to be themselves and follow subjects their interests. He said that it was very unfortunate that some students chose their subjects on the basis of scope instead of their interest. Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah proudly said that the GCU was holding three conferences this week which provided them opportunities to establish research and academic linkages with national and international universities. He said that modern research had become complex and multidisciplinary so universities needed to pool in their resources and expertise. The VC also mentioned that GCU Mathematics Department had been the most elderly place of learning and imparting knowledge of mathematics in Pakistan. “It was the only centre of teaching mathematics in this part of the subcontinent until 1920 when the Punjab University established its Department of Mathematics,” he added. Prof Dr Mujahid Abbas, the conference chairman, hoped that the conference would provide opportunities for the participants to exchange new ideas, share knowledge and experiences to establish research relations and to find global partners for future collaborations. He added that the theme of the conference will cover the major areas of Mathematical sciences such as functional analysis and its applications, fluid dynamics, fuzzy logic, topological vector spaces and nonlinear operator theory, best approximations theory, soft set theory, graph theory, algebra and more. Prof Abbas dedicated the conference to Nobel Laureate Prof Dr Abdus Salam and philosopher poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal. GCU Dean Faculty of Science and Technology Prof Dr Islam Ullah Khan also addressed the inaugural session. Published in Daily Times, November 14th 2018.