Abdus Salam

For other uses, see Abdus Salam (disambiguation).

File:Salam Nobel.jpeg

Abdus Salam at Nobel Prize ceremony with the King of Sweden.

Abdus Salam (Urdu: عبد السلام) (January 29, 1926 at Santokdas, Sahiwal in Punjab – 21 November, 1996 in Oxford, England) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for his work in electroweak theory which is the mathematical and conceptual synthesis of the electromagnetic and weak interactions, the latest stage in the effort to provide a unified description of the four fundamental forces of nature. Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg arrived at the theory independently and shared the prize. 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.

He was awarded an MA from Government College, Lahore, in 1946 then gained a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge , where he took a BA, graduating with First class honours in mathematics and physics in 1949. In 1950 he won the Smith's Prize St John's College. His PhD in theoretical physics from Cambridge was awarded in 1951 and contained fundamental work on quantum electrodynamics which had already gained him an international reputation, for which he was also awarded the Adams Prize.

He returned to Government College, Lahore as a professor of mathematics in 1951-54 and then went back to Cambridge as a lecturer in mathematics.

During the early 1960s Salam played a very significant role in starting Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission and Suparco, the country's space agency. Founder and Director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy from 1964 to December 1993, 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 fill the gap between the rich North and the poor South of the planet, thus contributing to a more peaceful world. Salam also founded the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and was instrumental 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 Northeastern Italy. In 1959, he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society (at that time) at the age of 33.

Salam died at 70 in Oxford in 1996, after a long illness. He was buried (without any official protocol) in Rabwah, Pakistan.

Professor Salam was a devout member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. Because he was an Ahmadi, he was never sufficiently recognized by the Pakistani government for being the country's first and only Nobel Laureate. In 1998, the government issued a stamp with his picture, but only as part of the series of stamps "Scientists of Pakistan" and without any special dedication to him. [1]

Youth and education

Abdus Salam was born 29 January 1926 in Jhang district in what is now the Punjab province of Pakistan. His father was an official in the Department of Education in a poor farming district. His family has a long tradition of piety and learning.

At the age of 14, he gained the highest marks ever recorded for the Matriculation Examination at the University of the Punjab. He won a scholarship to Government College, University of the Punjab, in Lahore. As a fourth year student, he published work on Srinivasa Ramanujan.. He took his MA at Government College in 1946. That same year, he was awarded a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge University, where he took a BA (honours) with a double First 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 also obtained a PhD in theoretical physics at Cambridge. His thesis contained fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics. By the time it was published in 1951, it had already gained him an international reputation.

Scientific career

Salam returned to Pakistan in 1951 to teach mathematics at Government College. In 1952 became the head of the Mathematics Department of the Punjab University. He had returned to Pakistan with the intention of founding a school of research, but soon found that this was impossible. In 1954 Salam left Pakistan for a lectureship at Cambridge, although he visited Pakistan from time to time as a government adviser on science policy. 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 was Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of Pakistan from 1961 to 1974.

Since 1957 he has been 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 important developments in this field. He also served on a number of United Nations committees concerning science and technology in developing countries.

Religion

Abdus Salam was a devout Muslim, 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 famously 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 proceeded to say: "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."

See also

• Pati-Salam model
• Unified field theory
• Electroweak interaction
• Preon
• W and Z bosons
• Standard Model
• Magnetic photon
• Dirac Prize
• Supersymmetry
• Quantum electrodynamics
• Asian African Association for Plasma Training

External links

• The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
• Abdus Salam: Nobel Laureate Par Excellence [contains photos and hand-written notes from family archives]
• Abdus Salam bio on Nobel site
• The Nobel Prize in Physics 1979 [2]
• The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics [3]
• Personalia at the ICTP Library [4]
• TWAS, formerly Third World Academy of Sciences [5]
• Abdus Salam CV [6] / [7]
• COMSATS Secretariat
• COMSATS
• National Centre For Physics (NCP)
• Biography of Abdus Salam by Imperial College colleague[8]
• An Interesting And Detailed Article On the Life of Dr. Abdus Salam In Urdu
• PBS documentary on strings, contains clip of award ceremony with Abdus Salam