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Abdus Salam

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This article is about the Pakistani scientist. For other uses, see Abdus Salam (disambiguation).
Abdus Salam
File:Abdus salam.gif
BornJanuary 29, 1926
Santokdas, Sahiwal, Punjab, British India
DiedNovember 21, 1996(1996-11-21) (aged 70)
Oxford, England, United Kingdom
NationalityPakistan
Known forElectroweak theory
Awards Nobel Prize in Physics (1979)
Smith's Prize
Adams Prize
Scientific career
FieldsPhysicist

Abdus Salam[1] (Urdu: عبد السلام) (January 29, 1926; Santokdas, Sahiwal Punjab – November 21, 1996; Oxford, England)[2] was a Pakistani theoretical physicist 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 first 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

Salam received an MA degree from Government College, Lahore, in 1946 then gained a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took a BA degree and met Shri Damodar Thakur, who still remembers him as enjoying good food prepared by him, graduating with First Class Honours in Mathematics and Physics in 1949. In 1950, he won the Smith's Prize St John's College. His Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge was awarded in 1951 and it contained fundamental work on Quantum Electrodynamics which had, already, gained him an international reputation and for which he was also awarded the Adams Prize.

He returned to the 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 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. 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 the North-East of Italy. In 1959, he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society (at that time) at the age of 33.

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

In 1998, the Government of Pakistan issued a stamp carrying his portrait as part of a series of stamps entitled "Scientists of Pakistan."[3]

Youth and Education

Salam's 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 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 where as a fourth-year student, he published his work on Srinivasa Ramanujan.[4] He took his masters degree at the Government College in 1946. That same year, he was awarded a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge University, where he took a BA 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 also obtained a Ph.D. 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.[5]

Religion

Abdus Salam was a devout Muslim, 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."[5]

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." [6]

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

Death

Salam died on 21st November 1996 in Oxford, England. His body was brought to Pakistan and was taken to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community headquarters of the city of Rabwah. Some 30,000 people attended the funeral prayers of the scientist. Earlier his body was kept in Darul Ziafat where 13000 men and women took a last glimpse of his face.

Salam was buried in the graveyard Bahishti Maqbara in Rabwah next to his parents' graves.[citation needed] The epitaph on his tomb used to read "First Muslim Nobel Laureate". Because of Salam's adherence to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the word "Muslim" was later erased on the orders of a local magistrate.[7]

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, Abdus Salam went for a lecturership 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.[5]

Contributions

Abdus 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; predicted existence of weak neutral currents and W particles and Z particles 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; and

See also

References

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Kibble, T.W.B. (1998). "Muhammad Abdus Salam, K. B. E.. 29 January 1926-21 November 1996". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 44: 386–401. Retrieved 2008-01-05. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Philately (21 November 1998). "Scientists of Pakistan". Pakistan Post Office Department. Retrieved 2008-02-18.
  4. ^ Abdus Salam, A Problem of Ramanujam, Publ. in: Math. Student XI, Nos.1-2, 50-51 (1943)
  5. ^ a b c Abdus Salam Nobel Prize in Physics Biography
  6. ^ The Nobel Prize in Physics 1979 - Banquet Speech
  7. ^ Isambard Wilkinson (25 December 2007). "Pakistan clerics persecute 'non Muslims'". Daily Telegraph.
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