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Abdus Salam

 
Scientist: Abdus Salam
 
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Pakistani physicist (1926–1996)

Salam, who was born at Jhang in Pakistan, attended Punjab University and Cambridge University, where he received his PhD in 1952. From 1951 to 1954 he was a professor of mathematics at the Government College of Lahore, concurrently with a post as head of the mathematics department of Punjab University. From 1954 until 1956 he lectured at Cambridge and from 1957 to 1993 he was a professor of theoretical physics at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. He was largely responsible for the establishment in 1964 of the International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, as an institute to assist physicists from developing countries. He was director of the center from its inception until 1994, dividing his time between there and Imperial College.

Salam's work was concerned with the theories describing the behavior and properties of elementary particles; for this he received the 1979 Nobel Prize for physics, shared with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg. Although the three men did most of their work independently, they each contributed to the development of a theory that could take account of the ‘weak’ and ‘electromagnetic’ interactions. One of their predictions was the phenomenon of neutral currents and their strengths, which was first confirmed in 1973 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and later by other groups. A further prediction of the theory is that of the existence of ‘intermediate vector bosons’ with high masses. The discovery of a vector boson was reported in 1983 by two teams (comprising 180 scientists) working at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics near Geneva.

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Biography: Abdus Salam
 
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Pakistani Physicist Abdus Salam (1926-1996) devoted a great deal of research time in the 1950s and 1960s to the study of the relationships between two of the four forces scientists believed governed nature: the electromagnetic force and the weak force. In 1968 he published a paper containing his theory that these two forces may actually be two manifestations of the same fundamental force, the electroweak force. By 1973 additional research had substantiated this theory, and in 1979 Salam was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work. In addition, he helped to found the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy.

Born on January 29, 1926, in Santokdas, in British India's Western Punjab (now Pakistan), Salam grew up in Jhang, a small, rural town. He was the son of Muhammad and Hajira Hussain, and his father worked for the local department of education. Salam showed an early talent for mathematics, and when he was 16 years old he enrolled at the Government College at Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan, after earning the highest marks ever recorded at his school. Salam published his first paper, which considered an algebraic problem by noted Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, when he was age 17, and in 1946 received his master's degree in mathematics. He was then awarded a scholarship to travel to England to attend St. John's College, Cambridge. At Cambridge Salam worked with theoretical physicist Nicholas Kemmer. At the time, Paul Matthews, another student of Kemmer's, was working on his Ph.D. in extending renormalization theory from quantum electrodynamics to meson theories. Salam joined Matthews and focused his attention on one of the problems related to this work. He quickly succeeded in solving it, thus establishing his reputation as an outstanding talent in the field. Salam then joined Matthews for a year of study at Princeton University. In 1949, Salam received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics, with highest honors.

Return to Pakistan Brought
Disappointment

For the next two years, Salam pursued graduate study at Cambridge, but he eventually felt obligated to return to his home country. In Pakistan he took a position as professor of mathematics at the Government College of Lahore, and he also became head of the department of mathematics at Punjab University. However, Salam was disappointed because these positions did not allow him to conduct research. As he told Nina Hall in New Scientist, "I learnt that I was the only practicing theoretical physicist in the entire nation. No one cared whether I did any research. Worse, I was expected to look after the college soccer team as my major duty besides teaching undergraduates." In addition to his difficulty in finding a position where he could do research, Salam experienced increasing prejudice due to his membership within the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam. Many Pakistanis were members of a different branch of Islam, which viewed the Ahmadiyya followers as heretics.

Discouraged by these setbacks, Salam returned to Cambridge, where he earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1952. For the next two years he taught mathematics at Cambridge as a lecturer and fellow. In 1957 he accepted an appointment as professor of theoretical physics at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, England. Salam, who retained his position at the Imperial College, in 1959, at age 33, became the youngest member of the Royal Society, based in London.

Found Unifying Theory

In the mid-1950s Salam began considering a fundamental question of modern physics: whether the various forces that govern everything in nature might actually be manifestations of the same basic force. At the time, scientists knew of four fundamental forces: gravitational force, electromagnetic force, strong force, and weak force. They also believed that if these forces were unified, this unification would not be visible or apparent except at levels of energy vastly greater than the ones humans encounter in the everyday world. These levels of energy exist in cosmic radiation, as well as in the most powerful particle accelerators ever built, so it is difficult for scientists to truly prove if in fact the fundamental forces are unified; most efforts to do so are theoretical exercises that involve complex mathematical formulas and calculations. However, by the 1960s Salam and fellow physicists Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow each independently came up with a mathematical theory that unified two of the four basic forces. All men came up with the same theory, although they started from different beginning points and followed different pathways to their results.

The new theory predicted the existence of new, previously unknown, weak "neutral currents." In 1973 these currents were observed in experiments at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, and these experiments were later replicated at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. The three physicists also predicted the existence of force-carrying particles, called W+, W-, and Z0 bosons. For their work, Salam, Weinberg, and Glashow were jointly awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics; Salam arrived at the ceremony wearing the traditional Pakistani dress of jeweled turban, baggy pants, scimitar, and curly toed shoes. In 1983 the existence of the force-carrying particles they had predicted was confirmed in experiments at CERN.

Assisted Other Physicists

In addition to his interest in purely theoretical physics, Salam had a lifelong interest in promoting the careers and status of theoretical physicists in developing nations, perhaps because of his own experiences, which had forced him to leave his home in Pakistan. He believed that theoretical physicists in developing countries needed support, encouragement, and instruction, and he decided that a training center should be established to provide this help. In 1964, with the help of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Italian government, and the city of Trieste, Salam established the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy; the center invites theoretical physicists from all over the world to lecture and teach students from developing nations. Hall noted that the Center is also a place for theoretical physicists from developing countries to meet and find camaraderie and common ground, "a sort of lonely scientist's club for Brazilians, Nigerians, Sri Lankans, or whoever feels the isolation resulting from lack of resources in their own country." Salam used his share of the Nobel Prize money to support the ICTP and never spent any of it on himself or his family.

Salam was director of the ICTP from its founding until his retirement in 1994. In addition, he served as a member of Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission from 1958 to 1974 and as a member of Pakistan's Science Council from 1963 to 1978. He was chief scientific advisor to the president of Pakistan from 1961 to 1974, and was chair of Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Committee from 1962 to 1963. He also served various international groups, From 1964 to 1972 he was a member and later chair of the U.N. Advisory Committee on Science and Technology; served as vice president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics from 1972 to 1978, and was a member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute from 1970 until his retirement. Salam received over two dozen honorary degrees and many awards, including the Atoms for Peace Award (1968), the Royal Medal of the Royal Society (1978), the John Torrence Tate Medal of the American Institute of Physics (1978), and the Lomonosov Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1983).

A student of Salam's, M. J. Duff, spoke about Salam at a 1996 physics workshop and posted these remarks on the University of Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics Web site "Being a student of someone so bursting with new ideas as Salam was something of a mixed blessing: he would allocate a research problem and then disappear on his travels for weeks at a time.… On his return he would ask what you were working on. When you began to explain your meager progress he would usually say, 'No, no, no. That's all old hat. What you should be working on is this,' and he would then allocate a completely new problem." Duff noted that after experiencing this several times, Salam's students "began to wise up and would avoid him until we had achieved something positive."

Personal Life

Even while living in England, Salam continued to fight prejudice against his religious group in Pakistan. In 1974 Pakistani president Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared that the Ahmadiyya sect was not Muslim. In protest, and to show his solidarity with Islam, Salam grew a beard and adopted the name Muhammad. He also frequently spoke throughout developing countries, but most notably in Islamic countries, and often noted that for several centuries the Arab and Muslim world had been in the forefront of science, far ahead of Europe and other parts of the world. He encouraged the founding of other centers similar to the ICTP, and became the first president of the Third World Academy of Sciences.

Salam was married twice, according to Islamic law, which allows men to marry up to four wives. He had six children: one son and three daughters by his first marriage, and a son and daughter by his second. As he grew older, he suffered from a degenerative neurological disease, progressive supranuclear palsy. This illness made it difficult for him to talk, and to walk, and he began using a wheelchair, while continuing to work as much as he could. Although he was ill, he still made remarkable contributions to research. In 1994 Salam retired from his post as director of the ICTP, and he died at his home in Oxford, England, on November 21, 1996, after a long illness. He was buried in the Ahmadia burial ground in Rabwah, Pakistan. In his honor, the ICTP was renamed the Abdus Salam ICTP. It has continued to help scientists from developing countries conduct research and pursue their careers.

After Salam's death, his reputation as a scientist led a publisher of fine art, Illuminocity, to make him the figure-head in a campaign to promote a positive view of Islam through the construction of a museum devoted to the history of Islamic sciences. The museum, exhibiting a collection of artwork titled "Heroes of Science," housed a painting of Salam by artist Ro Kim, who also painted portraits of President Bill Clinton and the president of Korea.

In a tribute to Salam in the Australian, a writer noted, "Salam was a striking man. Any young scientist who worked closely with him invariably found it to be an exhilarating and character-forming experience. In addition to his intellectual gifts, he had a genuine sense of humor, including that rarest of qualities of being able to laugh at himself. A warm twinkle would often accompany his more unorthodox suggestions as to how exactly the foundation of physics should be revolutionized."

Books

Building Blocks of Matter: A Supplement to the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Physics, edited by John S. Rigden, Macmillan Reference USA, 2003.

Notable Scientists: From 1800 to the Present, Gale, 2001.

World of Scientific Discovery, second edition, Gale, 1999.

Periodicals

Australian, December 2, 1996.

New Scientist, October 18, 1979; January 27, 1990.

Online

"Abdus Salam: Biography," Nobel e-Museum,http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1979/salam-bio.html (January 5, 2004).

"Professor Abdus Salam," ICTP Web site,http://www.ictp.Trieste.it/ProfSalam/index.html (January 5, 2004).

"A Tribute to Abdus Salam," University of Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics Web site,http://feynman.physics.lsa.umich.edu/~mduff/talks/ (January 5, 2004).

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Abdus Salam
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Salam, Abdus, 1926–96, Pakistani physicist. After attending Government College at Lahore, he received a Ph.D. from Cambridge (1952). He taught in Lahore for three years before returning to England, first teaching mathematics at Cambridge (1954–57), then moving to Imperial College in London, where he became a professor of theoretical physics. In the early 1960s he developed a theory to explain some behavior of the weak interactions of elementary particles. For this work, in 1979 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow. To support Third World scientists and scientific research, Salam founded what is now the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics in 1964 and the Third World Academy of Sciences in 1983 (both in Trieste, Italy). He headed the International Center until his death.
 
Wikipedia: Abdus Salam
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This article is about the Pakistani scientist. For other uses, see Abdus Salam (disambiguation).
Abdus Salam
Abdus Salam (1926-1996)
Abdus Salam (1926-1996)
Born January 29, 1926
Jhang, Punjab, Pakistan
Died November 21, 1996 (aged 70)
Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Citizenship Pakistani[1]
Nationality Pakistani
Fields Theoretical Physics
Institutions Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC)
Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO)
Punjab University
Imperial College, London
Government College
University of Cambridge
International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
Alma mater University of the Punjab
Government College
St John's College, Cambridge
Doctoral advisor Nicholas Kemmer
Paul Matthews
Doctoral students Michael Duff
Walter Gilbert
John Moffat
Yuval Ne'eman
John Polkinghorne
Raziuddin Siddiqui
Riazuddin
Masud Ahmad
Ghulam Murtaza
Known for Electroweak theory
Pati-Salam model
Pakistan's nuclear program
Pakistan's space program
Notable awards Nobel Prize in Physics (1979)
Smith's Prize
Adams Prize
Nishan-e-Imtiaz (1979)
Sitara-e-Pakistan (1959)
Religious stance Islam[2]

Abdus Salam[3] (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام) (January 29, 1926; Jhang Punjab – November 21, 1996; Oxford, England)[4] was a Pakistani theoretical physicist, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work in Electro-Weak Theory. Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg shared the prize for this discovery. Salam holds the distinction of being the only Pakistani Nobel Laureate, and is the first Muslim Nobel Laureate in science. The validity of the theory was ascertained through experiments carried out at the Super Proton Synchrotron facility at CERN in Geneva, particularly, through the discovery of the W and Z Bosons. Today, Abdus Salam is considered to have been one of Pakistan's most influential scientists. While he was a devout Muslim his whole life, a law passed in 1984, by the Government of Pakistan,under General Zia-ul-Haq, called Ordinance XX[5] which declared Salam's specific sect of Islam, the Ahmadiyya, to be declared non-Muslims. This in turn led to his grave stone being defaced, with the original "First Muslim Nobel Laureate" changed to read the epitaph "First Nobel Laureate".[6]

Contents

Biography

Youth and education

Salam's father was an officer in the Department of Education in a poor farming district. His family has a long tradition of piety and learning.

Only fourteen, Salam scored the highest marks ever recorded for the Matriculation Examination at the Panjab University. He won a scholarship to the Government College, Panjab University, in Lahore. As a fourth-year student there, he published his work on Srinivasa Ramanujan.[7] He received his master's degree from the Government College in 1946. That same year, he was awarded a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge University, where he completed a BA degree with Double First-Class Honours in Mathematics and Physics in 1949. In 1950, he received the Smith's Prize from Cambridge University for the most outstanding pre-doctoral contribution to Physics.

He obtained a PhD degree in Theoretical Physics at Cambridge. His doctoral thesis contained fundamental work in Quantum Electrodynamics. By the time it was published in 1951, it had already gained him an international reputation and the Adams Prize.[2]

Family

He was married to a British lady.

Religion

Abdus Salam was a devout Muslim, and a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community[8], who saw his religion as integral to his scientific work. He once wrote: "The Holy Quran enjoins us to reflect on the verities of Allah's created laws of nature; however, that our generation has been privileged to glimpse a part of His design is a bounty and a grace for which I render thanks with a humble heart."[2]

During his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Physics, Salam quoted the following verses from the Quran:

“ Thou seest not, in the creation of the All-merciful any imperfection, Return thy gaze, seest thou any fissure. Then Return thy gaze, again and again. Thy gaze, Comes back to thee dazzled, aweary. ”

He then said:

“ This, in effect, is the faith of all physicists; the deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement for our gaze.[9] ”

In 1974, when the Parliament of Pakistan declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims, he left Pakistan for London in protest.

Later career

He returned to the Government College University, Lahore as a Professor of Mathematics from 1951 to 1954 and then went back to Cambridge as a lecturer in mathematics.

During the early 1960s Salam played a very significant role in establishing the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) - the atomic research agency of Pakistan - and Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) - the space research agency of Pakistan, of which he was the founding director. He was also instrumental in setting up five Superior Science colleges throughout Pakistan to further the progress in science in the country. He was founder and Director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy from 1964 to December 1993. (The Centre has since been renamed, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics). Salam was a firm believer that "scientific thought is the common heritage of mankind," and that developing nations needed to help themselves and invest into their own scientists to boost development and reduce the gap between the Global South and the Global North, thus contributing to a more peaceful world. Salam also founded the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and was a leading figure in the creation of a number of international centres dedicated to the advancement of science and technology.

In 1956 he was invited to take a chair at Imperial College, London, where he and Paul Matthews created a lively theoretical physics group. He remained a professor at Imperial until his retirement. In 1964, he founded the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste in the North-East of Italy. In 1959, he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society (at that time) at the age of 33.

In 1998, the Government of Pakistan issued a stamp carrying his portrait as part of a series of stamps entitled "Scientists of Pakistan."[10]

Death and Legacy

Salam died at the age of 70 on 21st November 1996 in Oxford, England after a long illness. His body was brought to Pakistan and was taken to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community headquarters of the city of Rabwah.[11] His body was kept in Darul Ziafat, where some 13,000 men and women visited to pay their last respects. Some 30,000 people attended the funeral prayers of the scientist.

Salam was buried without official protocol in the graveyard Bahishti Maqbara in Rabwah next to his parents' graves.[11] The epitaph on his tomb initially read "First Muslim Nobel Laureate" but, because of Salam's adherence to the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect, the word "Muslim" was later erased on the orders of a local magistrate, leaving the non-sensical "First Nobel Laureate".[12]

Dr. Abdus Salam is considered to be one of the most prominent theoretical physicist and astrophysicist to come from Pakistan. Dr. Abdus Salam's work and theories were and still have far reaching influence and in spite of treatment of Ahmaiyyah Muslims in Pakistan, he is highly regarded and is seen as one of the most respected scientists in Pakistan.

In 1998, the Government of Pakistan issued a commemorative stamp to honour the contributions and services of Abdus Salam as part of its 'Scientists of Pakistan' series. Mr. Jamiluddin Aali, a renowned Pakistani journalist, wrote an article in 1979 for the Daily Jang titled "Two failed heroes of the east are celebrated universally", referring to Mother Teresa and Dr. Salam.

Dr. Ghulam Murtaza, professor of the plasma physics at the Government College University, Lahore, recalled his memories and said:

"He (Dr. Salam) takes immense pride in the fact that when I was a student of Dr. Salam at Imperial College and that I obtained a Ph.D under his patronage. When Dr. Salam was to deliver a lecture, the hall would be packed and although the subject was Particle Physics, his manner and eloquence was such as if he was talking about literature. When he finished his lectures, listeners would often burst into spontaneous applause and give him a standing ovation. People from all parts of the world would come to Imperial College and seeks Dr. Salam's help. He would give a patient hearing to everyone including those who were talking nonsense. He treated everyone with respect and compassion and never belittled or offended anyone. Dr. Salam's strength was that he could "sift jewels from the sand" [13].

Dr. Riazuddin, one of his close and distinguish students, and a professor of theoretical physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University, paid tributes to him and said:

"Although Dr. Salam may not have succeeded in establishing an internationally recognised physics community in Pakistan, he helped convince the Pakistani government to make a series of modest investments in scientific research. As a result, there was a flurry of activity in physics during the 1960s and 1970s that prompted the training of a small group of physicists who were born in Pakistan."

Dr. Abdus Salam was responsible for laying the groundwork for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, initiating research on problems of waterlogging and salinity, and agricultural research. He played a crucial role in PAEC and SUPARCO. He helped Pakistan's scientists and engineers to be trained in nuclear applications and nuclear science. In August 1996, a team of Pakistani scientists under the leadership of Mr.Munir Ahmad Khan and Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad met with Dr. Abdus Salam in Oxford, United Kingdom.

A well-known Pakistani nuclear physicist Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad, who is a professor of nuclear physics at the Quaid-i-Azam University, recalls, "Dr. Abdus Salam was responsible for sending about 500 physicists, mathematicians and scientists from Pakistan, for PhD’s to the best institutions in UK and USA" [1].

Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan (late), a famous Pakistani nuclear engineer and former PAEC chairman said:

"My last meeting with Abdus Salam was only three months ago. His disease had taken its toll and he was unable to talk. Yet he understood what was said. I told him about the celebration held in Pakistan on his seventieth birthday. He kept staring at me. He had risen above praise. As I rose to leave he pressed my hand to express his feelings as if he wanted to thank everyone who had said kind words about him. Dr. Abdus Salam had deep love for Pakistan in spite of the fact that he was treated unfairly and indifferently by his own country. It became more and more difficult for him to come to Pakistan and this hurt him deeply. Now he has returned home finally, to rest in peace for ever in the soil that he loved so much. May be in the years to come we will rise above our prejudice and own him and give him, after his death, what we could not when he was alive. We Pakistanis may chose to ignore Dr. Salam but the world at large, will always remember him."

Documentary Film (Docufilm)

A documentary film on the life and science of Abdus Salam is in the works and will be directed by Sabiha Sumar[1] subject to collection of donations valued to $500,000.

Relationship with President Ayub Khan

Dr. Abdus Salam had an extremely close relationship with President of Pakistan, Ayub Khan. Dr. Salam had a greatest influence on the scientific policies of Pakistan. On August, 04,1959, while inaugurating the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), President Ayub Khan said "In the end, I must say how happy I am to see Prof. Abdus Salam in our midst. His attainments in the field of science at such a young age are a source of pride and inspiration for us and I am sure that his association with the commission will help to impart weight and prestige to the recommendations." [14] As scientific Adviser to President of Pakistan, dr. Abdus Salam was an instrumental in the formation of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). He also established a nuclear research institute, PINSTECH. On september, 16, 1961, by the order of President Ayub Khan on the advice of its founding director, Abdus Salam, established SUPARCO, a leading Pakistani space agency. President Ayub Khan also invited him over for a state dinner in honour of the Shah of Iran. [1]

Relationship with Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Salam was one of the few Pakistani scientists who were very close to former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. In 1970s, when Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, learned that India was close to developing a nuclear bomb, and in response, Bhutto formed a group of nuclear engineers and scientists, was initially headed by dr. Abdus Salam to develop nuclear devices. Abdus Salam worked closely in Pakistan's nuclear program. He was one of the key figure of Pakistan's nuclear program. He called majority of his nuclear students, working at ICTP, to join Pakistani nuclear program on the request of Bhutto. Salam, along with dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan and Munir Ahmad Khan, played an important role in country's program. In 1976, Salam met with Bhutto where he received Bhutto's permission established the Annual international Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary Needs in Pakistan. However, the close relationship deteriorated when Parliament of Pakistan pressured Prime Minister Bhutto to pass the controversial amendment of the Constitution of Pakistan, which declared Ahmadiyyah Muslims to be non-Muslims.

Relationships with President Gen. Zia ul-Haq

Abdus Salam enjoyed better relations with President General Zia ul-Haq, who received him as a state guest and awarded him the Nishan-i-Imtiaz in 1979. However, Abdus Salam was carefully excluded from exercising any real influence over scientific matters.[15] In 1979, when Abdus Salam visited Islamabad at President General Zia ul-Haq's invitation, the physics department at Quaid-e-Azam University wanted Abdus Salam to give a lecture on his Nobel Prize winning theory.[16]

He gave a very short lecture about his theory. After his lecture, he went to hotel under strict security along with Dr. I.H.Usmani. Later, he was departed to United Kingdom shortly. A law passed in 1984, by the Government of Pakistan, under Military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, called Ordinance XX which declared Salam's specific sect of Islam, the Ahmadiyya, to be declared non-Muslims. Gen. Zia's promulgated Ordinance XX on 26 April, 1984, have kept Salam away from Pakistan. Salam, who had deep love for Pakistan, have tried to come Pakistan on various occasions. But the Zia's promulgated law was a biggest obstacle in dr. Abdus Salam's path to come to Pakistan.

Career in science

The road named after Abdus Salam in CERN, Geneva

Salam returned to Pakistan in 1951 to teach Mathematics at the Government College, Lahore. In 1952, he became the Head of the Mathematics Department of the Punjab University. In 1954, Salam went for a lectureship at Cambridge, although he visited Pakistan from time to time as an adviser on science policy to the Government of Pakistan. His work for Pakistan was far-reaching and influential. He was a member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and work their as a chief scientist with his students, a member of the Scientific Commission of Pakistan, Founder Chairman of Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission and Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of Pakistan from 1961 to 1974.

From 1957 onwards, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College, London. From 1964 onwards, has combined this position with that of Director of the International Centre For Theoretical Physics, a research institution in Trieste, Italy.

Salam had a prolific research career in theoretical elementary particle physics. He either pioneered or was associated with all the important developments in this field. He also served on a number of United Nations committees concerning science and technology in developing countries.[2]. Many prominent scientists, which includes, Ghulam Murtaza, Riazuddin, Raziuddin Siddiqui, Munir Ahmad Khan, Ishfaq Ahmad, and I. H. Usmani, considered him as their chief mentor and a teacher. Abdus salam played a important and a crucial role in preparing and teaching of future pakistani engineers and scientists in the field of mathematics and physics.

A Key Role in Pakistan's Space Programme

It was Dr. Abdus Salam's advice to the President of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, to establish a National Space Agency of Pakistan, SUPARCO. In September, 16, 1961, on the advice of dr. Abdus Salam, it was decided to set up a Committee dealing with space sciences. Consequently, a Space SciencesResearch Wing of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was established through an Executive Order of the President of Pakistan, Ayub Khan which was addressed to dr. I. H. Usmani, the Chairman of PAEC. The programme of rocket firings was entrusted to Chairman PAEC.[17] Dr. Abdus Salam was appointed its first Chairman. On June 7, 1961, under the leadership of dr. Abdus Salam and dr. I. H. Usmani, a two-stage rocket, Rehbar-I was launched Sonmiani Rocket Range. Pakistan had the honour of becoming the third country in Asia and the tenth in the world to conduct such a launching.

On July, 25,1964, Dr. Abdus Salam arranged a meeting with President Ayub Khan where SUPARCO was placed under the direct control of the President of Pakistan. On 8 March 1966, President Ayub Khan constituted SUPARCO as a separate organisation under the administrative control of Dr. Abdus Salam. [18] Dr. Abdus Salam, along with Dr. I. H. Usmani, led a team of aerospace engineers to design a Rehbar sounding Rocket series. Dr. Abdus Salam also established space centers in different cities of Pakistan, notebly in Karachi and Lahore. Abdus Salam also intiated an aerospace engineering program in SUPARCO. He was one of the pionneering figures in 1960s to lead Pakistan in Space Power world. Abdus Salam was noted for his theories and its relationship to Islam in SUPARCO, his efforts were involved in inducting an applied physics and an experimental physics laboratories in Karachi University. Abdus Salam also established an aerospace engineering course in Pakistan Airforce Academy.

Involvement in Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Programme

Abdus Salam was one of the key figures of Pakistan's nuclear program. A vast majority of Pakistani nuclear scientists were his students, his student often called him as their "nuclear and scientific father". Abdus Salam and his students studied and research extensively in the field of sensitive nuclear technology. Salam's influenced theories and research paper in the field of nuclear technology, were obtained by his student inorder to develop nuclear program. Abdus Salam also knew the importance of Nuclear Technology in Pakistan. He also knew that India's Nuclear test in 1974, would spur Pakistan to accelerate development of Nuclear weapons of its own (its nuclear programme dated from no later than 1967), in order to purportedly defend its self from India. He knew that the energy crises was deepening in Pakistan. That is why Dr. Abdus Salam had closely worked with his noted colleague and friend, the PAEC Chairman Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan for development of the nuclear program in Pakistan. As a Scientific Adviser to the President of Pakistan, Dr. Abdus Salam attended a high-level secret meeting of Nuclear scientists and Nuclear engineers to meet Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Dr. Abdus Salam also attended that meeting where he and Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto were briefed by Dr. S.A Butt and Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan.[citation needed]

On the other hand, Dr. Abdus Salam was a strong supporter of peaceful use of Nuclear technology. Like many other Pakistaniphysicists, Dr. Abdus Salam was a strong supporter for peaceful use of Nuclear technology, non-nuclear proliferation, and nuclear disarmament. However, he an was instrumental in launching a massive training programme for Pakistani Nuclear scientists, in setting up PINSTECH as a high quality Nuclear research institution at PAEC. Dr. Abdus Salam also introduced Pakistan at CERN, where many Pakistani scientists and engineers were trained in the field of Nuclear applications as well as in Nuclear engineering.

In December 1972 two theoretical physicists working at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, were asked by Dr. Abdus Salam to report to Pakistani Nuclear scientist and Nuclear engineer Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan, the PAEC Chairman. This marked the beginning of the “Theoretical Physics Group” (TPG) in PAEC that would develop the theoretical designs of Pakistan’s Nuclear weapons.

The Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) team under the leadership of Riazuddin and Raziuddin Siddiqui, completed work on the theoretical design of the bomb by 1977[19]. Dr. Raziuddin Siddiqui, Dr. Riazuddin, and Dr. Masud Ahmad were a distinguished student of Dr. Abdus Salam.

Contributions

Salam's primary focus was research on the physics of elementary particles. His particular contributions included:

Awards[24]

  • Hopkins Prize (Cambridge University) for "the most outstanding contribution to Physics during 1957-1958"
  • Adams Prize (Cambridge University) (1958)
  • First recipient of Maxwell Medal and Award (Physical Society, London) (1961)
  • Hughes Medal (Royal Society, London) (1964)
  • Atoms for Peace Medal and Award (Atoms for Peace Foundation) (1968)
  • J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Medal and Prize (University of Miami) (1971)
  • Guthrie Medal and Prize (1976)
  • Matteuci Medal (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome) (1978)
  • John Torrence Tate Medal (American Institute of Physics) (1978)
  • Royal Medal (Royal Society, London) (1978)
  • Einstein Medal (UNESCO, Paris) (1979)
  • Shri R.D. Birla Award (India Physics Association) (1979)
  • Josef Stefan Medal (Josef Stefan Institute, Ljublijana) (1980)
  • Gold Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Physics (Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague) (1981)
  • Lomonosov Gold Medal (USSR Academy of Sciences) (1983)
  • Copley Medal (Royal Society, London) (1990)
  • Nishan-e-Imtiaz for outstanding performance in Scientific projects in Pakistan (1979).
  • Sitara-e-Pakistan for contribution to science in Pakistan (1959).

Institutes Named After Abdus Salam

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c http://www.chowk.com/articles/8387 -Dr Abdus Salam - The ’Mystic’ scientist
  2. ^ a b c d Abdus Salam Nobel Prize in Physics Biography
  3. ^ This is the standard transliteration (e.g. see the ICTP Website and Nobel Bio). Other transliterations include Abdus Salam; see Abd as-Salam for more details.
  4. ^ Kibble, T.W.B. (November 1998). "Muhammad Abdus Salam, K. B. E.. 29 January 1926-21 November 1996". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 44: 386–401. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1998.0025. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4606%28199811%2944%3C386%3AMASKBE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage. Retrieved on 2008-01-05. 
  5. ^ Ordinance XX
  6. ^ Isambard Wilkinson (2007-12-25). "Pakistan clerics persecute 'non Muslims'". Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/25/wpakistan125.xml. 
  7. ^ Abdus Salam, A Problem of Ramanujam, Publ. in: Math. Student XI, Nos.1-2, 50-51 (1943)
  8. ^ http://www.alislam.org/library/salam-5.htm
  9. ^ The Nobel Prize in Physics 1979 - Banquet Speech
  10. ^ Philately (1998-11-21). "Scientists of Pakistan". Pakistan Post Office Department. http://www.pakpost.gov.pk/philately/stamps98/scientists_of_pakistan.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-18. 
  11. ^ a b http://www.alislam.org/library/salam-15.htm
  12. ^ Isambard Wilkinson (2007-12-25). "Pakistan clerics persecute 'non Muslims'". Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/25/wpakistan125.xml. 
  13. ^ http://www.chowk.com/articles/8387
  14. ^ http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/35462
  15. ^ http://www.alislam.org/library/salam-4.htm
  16. ^ http://www.alislam.org/library/salam-4.htm
  17. ^ http://www.suparco.gov.pk/pages/history.asp
  18. ^ Salam.http://tripatlas.com/SUPARCO
  19. ^ "Timeline of Pakistan's Nuclear Programme". Pakdef.ino. http://www.pakdef.info/nuclear&missile/timeline2.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-09. 
  20. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1979". Nobel Foundation. http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1979. Retrieved on 2008-09-10. 
  21. ^ Hélein, Frédéric (2008), "A representation formula for maps on supermanifolds", Journal of Mathematical Physics 49 (023506): 1 & 19, doi:10.1063/1.2840464 
  22. ^ Lauren Caston and Rita Fioresi (October 30, 2007). [2008-09-10 "Mathematical Foundations of Supersymmetry"] (PDF). arXiv. 2008-09-10. 
  23. ^ A. Salam (1966). "Magnetic monopole and two photon theories of C-violation". Physics Letters 22: 683–684. doi:10.1016/0031-9163(66)90704-9. 
  24. ^ Abdus Salam - Curriculum Vitae

External links

Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Abdus Salam
v • d • e
Nobel Laureates in Physics

Burton Richter / Samuel C. C. Ting (1976) · Philip Anderson / Nevill Mott / John van Vleck (1977) · Pyotr Kapitsa / Arno Penzias / Robert Wilson (1978) · Sheldon Glashow / Abdus Salam / Steven Weinberg (1979) · James Cronin / Val Fitch (1980) · Nicolaas Bloembergen / Arthur Schawlow / Kai Siegbahn (1981) · Kenneth G. Wilson (1982) · Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar / William Fowler (1983) · Carlo Rubbia / Simon van der Meer (1984) · Klaus von Klitzing (1985) · Ernst Ruska / Gerd Binnig / Heinrich Rohrer (1986) · Johannes Bednorz / Karl Müller (1987) · Leon M. Lederman / Melvin Schwartz / Jack Steinberger (1988) · Norman Ramsey / Hans Dehmelt / Wolfgang Paul (1989) · Jerome Friedman / Henry Kendall / Richard E. Taylor (1990) · Pierre de Gennes (1991) · Georges Charpak (1992) · Russell Hulse / Joseph Taylor (1993) · Bertram Brockhouse / Clifford Shull (1994) · Martin Perl / Frederick Reines (1995) · D. Lee / Douglas D. Osheroff / Robert Richardson (1996) · Steven Chu / Claude Cohen-Tannoudji / William Phillips (1997) · Robert B. Laughlin / Horst Störmer / Daniel C. Tsui (1998) · Gerardus 't Hooft / Martinus J. G. Veltman (1999) · Zhores Alferov / Herbert Kroemer / Jack Kilby (2000)

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