Imrana Ashraf

Imrana Ashraf earned her PhD in quantum optics from the Department of Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad, where she later served as a faculty member. Her research interests span quantum, atomic, and classical optics. Following her retirement, she has remained actively engaged in academia through optics education and outreach efforts, while continuing her affiliation with her parent institution.

She is a Senior Member of Optica and SPIE, a Senior Associate of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) for the period 2026–2031, and the Managing Director of the International Commission for Optics (ICO) in Pakistan. Ashraf has maintained a close association with ICTP for over three decades and, in recognition of this long-standing commitment, was selected as one of only four 2025 ICTP Institute Associates worldwide.

In 2016, Ashraf founded Active Learning in Optics (ALO), a self-funded initiative dedicated to promoting hands-on optics education among underprivileged high-school and college girls in remote regions of Pakistan. Through ALO, she successfully organized 90 optics outreach activities across the country by December 2025. During the COVID-19 pandemic, recognizing the need to sustain scientific collaboration, she initiated the Pak-ICTP Alumni Society (PIAS) as an online platform for academic engagement and community building.

She has over 30 years of experience teaching optics-related courses at QAU and 14 years of teaching experience at the Preparatory School of the ICTP Winter College on Optics. She has also contributed to informal optics education at ICTP, Italy, particularly for African participants, and continues to engage in outreach for underprivileged public-sector schools, colleges, and universities in remote areas of Pakistan. Her contributions have been recognized with several honors, including the Esther Hoffman Beller Medal, the ICO/ICTP Award, the Spirit of Salam Prize, and Optica’s Diversity and Inclusion Advocacy Recognition Award.