ESDU (originally an acronym of "Engineering Sciences Data Unit" but now used on its own account) is an engineering advisory organisation based in the United Kingdom.

ESDU provides validated engineering analysis tools to engineers and teachers in the aerospace engineering, process engineering and structural engineering fields.

The tools include methodologies, design guides, equations and software, and are accompanied by an advisory service that enables engineers to discuss their requirements and data application directly with ESDU staff.

ESDU's engineering staff are assisted and guided in their work by independent committees of specialists drawn from industry and academia worldwide who volunteer their time to produce ESDU's unique and reliable information. They are responsible for ensuring the technical quality of the work and for presenting the data in a clear, concise, authoritative manner. They also determine the future direction of the work, taking into account the views of users.

The ESDU offers its services across a wide variety of different engineering fields. These include:

Engineering is the discipline, skill, and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes.

The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET) has defined "engineering" as:

The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property.

One who practices engineering is called an engineer, and those licensed to do so may have more formal designations such as Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer, Ingenieur or European Engineer. The broad discipline of engineering encompasses a range of more specialized sub disciplines, each with a more specific emphasis on certain fields of application and particular areas of technology.

Ghulam Ishaq Khan (Pashto: غلام اسحاق خان, Urdu: غلام اسحاق خان; 20 January 1915 – 27 October 2006), abbreviated as GIK, was the seventh President of Pakistan, serving from 1988 to 1993. The only president to have come from the civil bureaucracy, Khan had previously served as the Chairman of the Senate, and as the Defence Secretary from 1975 until 1977.

Born and hail from Bannu District, Khan completed his education from the Peshawar University in Nuclear chemistry, but started his bureaucratic career from Indian Civil Service. Opting for citizenship of Pakistan, his national bureaucratic career started after being appointed as the first chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority by President Field Marshal Ayub Khan in 1961 and served until 1966, before appointing as Finance Secretary— a post he kept until 1970. In 1971, Ishaq Khan was appointed by Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as the Governor of State Bank, and in 1975, Bhutto personally gave authorization for appointing him as the Defence Secretary during which he effectively played an integral role in the development and success of the atomic bomb project, most notably the Kahuta Project as part of country's nuclear deterrence. In spite of being close to Bhutto, Khan was appointed as minister of Treasure Ministry, and was one of the leading civil statesmen in the military government of General Zia-ul-Haq, from 5 July 1977 until his election as Chairman of Senate in 1985.