The renowned Syed Babar Ali has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science. The signing and induction ceremony took place at Kresge Auditorium, MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
After the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. Abdus Salam, Syed Babar Ali is the second Pakistani to receive the rare honour.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, and other Founding Fathers of the United States. The Academy is dedicated to honouring excellence and leadership, working across disciplines and divides, and advancing the common good.
It is as a result of Syed Babar Ali’s contributions that he has been inducted into the American Academy of Art and Sciences.
Syed Babar Ali created and grew Packages Ltd, Milkpak Ltd, Tri-pack Films, and the IGI Group. He founded the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and brought several foreign companies to Pakistan, including Nestlé (Switzerland) and Tetrapak (Sweden). He serves on the board of Coca-Cola Pakistan, Siemens Pakistan, and Sanofi-Aventis.
Syed Babar Ali promoted the cause of the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature where he served in various positions, both in Pakistan and internationally, from 1972 to 1996. He was the international president of the WWF from 1996 to 1999, succeeding Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Syed Babar Ali has received honours and awards from the Government of Sweden, the Government of Netherlands, an Order of the British Empire from Britain (1997), and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Laws from McGill University, Montreal, Canada (1997). On being inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he joins 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, including Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela who have become part of the Academy’s over 200 years of history.
“Our old Ravian, philanthropist, and educationist Syed Babar Ali has been inducted as a member of the American Academy of Art and Sciences for his services to higher education in Pakistan. He becomes only the second Pakistani to earn this honour, after Dr. Abdus Salam, another Ravian,” tweeted Asghar Zaidi, the renowned educationist. 
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