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Abdus Salam (Urdu: ???? ??? ??????) (January 29, 1926; Jhang Punjab – November 21, 1996; Oxford, England) 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.
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If you consider me to be a non-Muslim, it is your problem but permit me to lay a brick in the mosque you want to build.
Scientific thought is the common heritage of mankind.
It is just impossible to talk only of technology transfer. One should talk of science transfer first and technology transfer later…..Unless you are very good at science you will never be good at technology.
Whenever faced with two competing theories for the same set of observations I have always found that the theory which was more aesthetically satisfying is also the correct one.
As a scientist, the Quran speaks to me in that it emphasises reflection on Laws of Nature, with examples drawn from cosmology, physics, biology and medicine, as signs for all men.
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Abdus Salam (Urdu: ???? ??? ??????) (January 29, 1926; Jhang Punjab – November 21, 1996; Oxford, England) 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.
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.
At the age of just fourteen, Salam scored the highest marks ever recorded for the Matriculation Examination at the University of the Punjab. He won a scholarship to the Government College, University of the Punjab, in Lahore. As a fourth-year student there, he published his work on Srinivasa Ramanujan. He got his master's degree at the Government College in 1946. That same year, he was awarded a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge University, where he got 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.
Religion
Abdus Salam was a devout Muslim, and a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, 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."
During his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Physics, Salam quoted the following verses from the Quran:
-
He then said:
In 1974, when the Pakistan National Assembly declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims, he left Pakistan for London in protest.
Later career
He returned to the Government College, 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."
Death
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. His body was kept in Darul Ziafat, where 13,000 men and women took a last glimpse of his face. 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. 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". Dr. Abdus Salam is considered to be one of the most prominent Astrophysicists to come from Pakistan.
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; http://www.abdussalamdocufilm.com/filmmakers_advisors.php subject to collection of donations valued to $500,000.
Career in science
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, 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.
Involvement in Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Programme
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 Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan, the PAEC chairman. This marked the beginning of the “Theoretical Physics Group” in PAEC that would develop the designs of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
The Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) team under the leadership of Dr. Raziuddin Siddiqui, completed work on the theoretical design of the bomb by 1977. Dr. Raziuddin Siddiqui is a distinguished student of Dr. Abdus Salaam.
Contributions
Salam's primary focus was research on the physics of elementary particles. His particular contributions included:
- two-component neutrino theory and the prediction of the inevitable parity violation in weak interaction;
- gauge unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions, the unified force is called the "Electroweak" force, a name given to it by Salam, and which forms the basis of the Standard Model in particle physics;
- predicted existence of weak neutral currents and W particles and Z particles before their experimental discovery;
- symmetry properties of elementary particles; unitary symmetry;
- renormalization of meson theories;
- gravity theory and its role in particle physics; two tensor theory of gravity and strong interaction physics;
- unification of electroweak with strong nuclear forces, grand unification theory;
- related prediction of proton-decay;
- Pati-Salam model, a grand unification theory;
- Supersymmetry theory, in particular formulation of Superspace and formalism of superfields in 1974;
- the theory of supermanifolds, as a geometrical framework for understanding supersymmetry, in 1974;
- Supergeometry, the geometric basis for supersymmetry, in 1974;
- application of the Higgs mechanism to the electroweak symmetry breaking;
- prediction of the magnetic photon in 1966;
Awards
- 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)
See also
External links
- [contains photos and hand-written notes from family archives]
-
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 1979
- The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
- Personalia at the ICTP Library
- TWAS, formerly Third World Academy of Sciences
- Abdus Salam CV /
- Biography of Abdus Salam by Imperial College colleague
- A full biography: 'Cosmic Anger, Abdus Salam- the First Muslim Nobel Scientist' [ISBN 978-0-19-920846-3]
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