Introduction:
Dr. Muhammad Shafiq currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Horticulture within the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan. Prior to this role, he held positions as a Lecturer at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, from 2010 to 2014, and as a Research Scholar at the University of Glasgow, UK (Plant Science Group) in 2007-2008, and as Borlauge fellow  at Texas A&M University and University of Arizona in 2013. With over 15 years of professional experience in Agriculture/Horticulture, Bioinformatics  and Molecular Plant Virology, Dr. Shafiq obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Agriculture (Horticulture) from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, and earned his PhD degree in Agricultural  Biotechnology  from NIBGE, Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan.
His primary research focus is on understanding virus diversity and enhancing virus resistance in horticultural crops through various bioinformatics and molecular biology techniques. Dr. Shafiq has contributed to numerous publications in esteemed journals such as BMC Genomics, Scientific Reports, Plant Stresses, Scientia Horticulturae, Frontiers in Plant Sciences, PEER J, Archives of Virology, and Virology Journal, with a total of 78 HEC recognized articles and a cumulative impact factor of 150. Additionally, he has authored several book chapters and articles aimed at guiding the farming community of Pakistan.
Dr. Shafiq's outstanding contributions have been recognized with awards such as the Research Productivity Award from the University of the Punjab (2013-2017) and Norman E. Borlaug Fellowship awards from the United States Department of Horticulture (USDA), in 2013, ICGEB Fellowship to attend workshop in Italy, Egypt, Mexico and India as well as HEC IRSIP and HEC Indigenous Scholarships for his PhD studies. He served as the Vice-President of the Pakistan Society for Horticultural Sciences from 2018 to 2019 and as the President from 2019 to 2020. Throughout his career, Dr. Shafiq has supervised 60 M.Sc (Hons) Horticulture students and four PhD students. He has also shared his research findings through oral presentations and as an invited speaker in over 20 countries, including the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, New Zealand, Egypt, India, Oman, Austria, and Bosnia.