J

akarta: The chairman of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Iskandar Zulkarnain, died aged 58 on Sunday.

LIPI spokesman Purwadi confirmed the passing of the geology expert, but did not disclose the cause of death.

“Innalillahi wa inna ‘ilaihi roji’un [We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return]. LIPI chairman Prof. Iskandar Zulkarnain passed away at 4 p.m. at the Metropolitan Medical Center Hospital in Jakarta,” he said in a statement.

He added that Iskandar had been ill for quite a long time.

According to the institution’s Twitter account @lipiindonesia, prayers for the deceased were held at the Baitul Hikmah Mosque in the LIPI complex on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta, on Sunday.

Iskandar will be buried in Pasaman, West Sumatra, on Monday.

Born on April 14, 1959, Iskandar earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 1985.

He completed his PhD in natural sciences at the Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet in Germany.

He joined the research institute in 1985 as a geological and geophysics researcher, where he did geochemical analysis of rocks for more than 20 years.

He was granted the title of professor in 2013 because of his research in geology and geophysics.

On Oct. 17, 2014, he was appointed to lead LIPI, the country’s biggest science center.

Previously, he served as the head of the institute’s center of geotechnology research from 2006 to 2011 and was then promoted to serve as LIPI’s deputy until 2014. — JP