About Us

The National Science Bowl Pakistan (NSB-P) is an science knowledge competition modeled on the successful quiz bowl format of the US National Science Bowl.

The goal of NSB-P is to ignite a love for science among students across Pakistan. While the country has seen a growing “maker” movement in science, NSB-P aims to complement this with a more traditional, memory-based competition—one that draws from Pakistan’s rich cultural legacy of academic contests, such as Bait-Baazi.

Participants answer questions in Biology, Chemistry, Earth & Space Science, Mathematics, and Physics that challenge both their factual knowledge and quick analytical thinking. The team-based format encourages collaboration, and the fast-paced quiz structure generates excitement and engagement. Since the questions are not strictly curriculum-based, students are pushed to self-learn, explore, and cultivate their own scientific interests and journeys.

Like many innovative efforts, NSB-P began with a mix of passion, personal connections, and serendipity—driven by students who loved science and educators who dreamed of building a more curious world. Our first event was a pilot run held in the summer of 2019, made possible with support from U.S. high school students from the Lexington High School Science Bowl teams (Amaan Khwaja, Daniel Zhou, Gideon Tzafriri, Ludwig Tay, and Sean Fei). On the ground in Pakistan, it was supported by the Pakistan Innovation Foundation (under the leadership of Dr. Athar Osama), the Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (led by Maroof Syed and Dr. Asim Khwaja), and a dedicated group of LUMS faculty and students (Dr. Yasira Waqar, Habiba Malik, Injila Rasul, Moeed Asad, Qasim Farooq, and Ummara Waheed).

Since then, the competition has grown and continues to expand, reaching more students and schools with each passing year.

Our vision is to build on this momentum and bring the competition to students not just in urban centers, but also in rural and remote areas across the country.

We firmly believe that talent knows no boundaries—whether of race, religion, gender, or income—and we are committed to celebrating and nurturing that talent wherever it exists. To do this, we rely on the collective and volunteer spirit of our program alumni, students, educators, the naturally curious, and general well-wishers.

If you’d like to learn more or support our efforts, please reach out to us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.