Dr Asif Khan went on a 14-day official visit to the US sponsored and invited by The US Department of State. He was selected by the US government, from Pakistan, to participate in an international prestigious Leadership Programme on “Climate Change and Atmospheric Pollution”.

He visited the capital, Washington DC, and the states of Wisconsin and California, where he had meetings with several government officials and scientists.

As part of the programme, in Washington DC, he visited and held numerous meetings with counterparts at the US Department of State, US Environmental Protection Agency, National Academy of Sciences, The George Washington University, The US Institute of Peace, The World Health Organization, The American Pharmacists Association, The Natural Resources Defence Council, The Smtithsonian Institution of Air and Space, and The Smithsonian Institution of Natural History. He also had meetings with the Governor of the state of Maryland and some non-governmental organisations. Apart from his official engagements, he had the opportunity to pay visits to The White House, The Congress at Capitol Hill, The Lincoln Memorial, The Washington Memorial, The Federal Reserve, The Department of The Treasury and other places.

In the state of Wisconsin, he visited the University of Wisconsin in the capital city of Madison. He met with several outstanding scientists in the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (a multi-million dollar laboratory), The National Atmospheric Deposition Programme and The Wisconsin National Multi-Pollutant Monitoring Station.

During his visit to the state of California, he held meetings with officials, in the capital Sacramento, from California Environmental Protection Agency, California Air Resources Board, American Carbon Registry, Clean Air Partnership, Climate Action Team Public Health Working Group, Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, and Coalition for Clean Air. To foster research collaboration, he also met several scientists at the esteemed Air Quality Research Centre, University of California, Davis.

Dr Asif Khan plans to further strengthen research and collaboration ties between Pakistan and several important stakeholders in the US, to address the problems associated with climate change and atmospheric pollution.