Prof Abdus Salam

Prof. Abdus Salam (lahir di Jhang, Punjab, Kemaharajaan Britania, 29 Januari 1926 – meninggal di Oxford, Inggris, Britania Raya, 21 November 1996 pada umur 70 tahun) ialah seorang tokoh Pakistan yang menerima Hadiah Nobel Fisika pada 1979 bersama dengan Sheldon Glashow dan Steven Weinberg.

Abdus Salam dilahirkan di Jhang, sebuah kota kecil di Pakistan, pada tahun 1926. Ayahnya ialah pegawai dalam Dinas Pendidikan dalam daerah pertanian. Kelurga Abdus Salam mempunyai tradisi pembelajaran dan alim. Hanya sayangnya, ia memasuki Jamaah Muslim Ahmadiyyah dari Qadian, yang mempercayai kedatangan kedua dari Almasih, Nabi Isa yang kedua kalinya yang dijanjikan, Imam Mahdi, begitu juga sebagai Mujaddid di abad ke 14 H dalam Kalender Islam dalam wujud Mirza Ghulam Ahmad,^[1] sehingga aliran ini dianggap sebagai minoritas non-Muslim di Pakistan. Akibatnya, sampai saat meninggalnya pada 1996, ia tidak pernah diberi penghargaan resmi oleh pemerintah Pakistan.

Lahir	29 Januari 1926 Jhang, Punjab, Kemaharajaan Britania
Meninggal	21 November 1996 (umur 70) Oxford, Inggris, Britania Raya
Warga negara	Pakistan
Institusi	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) COMSATS TWAS Edward Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute
Alma mater	Universitas Punjab Government College St John's College, Cambridge
Pembimbing doktoral	Nicholas Kemmer Paul Matthews
Murid bimbingan	Michael Duff Walter Gilbert John Moffat Yuval Ne'eman John Polkinghorne Raziuddin Siddiqui Riazuddin Masud Ahmad Ghulam Murtaza Faheem Hussain
Dikenal atas	c theory Pati-Salam model Program nuklir Pakistan Program angkasa Pakistan
Penghargaan	Penghargaan Nobel dalam Fisika (1979) Smith's Prize Adams Prize Nishan-e-Imtiaz (1979) Sitara-e-Pakistan (1959)

http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdus_Salam

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Biography

Abdus Salam was born in Jhang, a small town in what is now Pakistan, in 1926. 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.

When he cycled home from Lahore, at the age of 14, after gaining the highest marks ever recorded for the Matriculation Examination at the University of the Punjab, the whole town turned out to welcome him. He won a scholarship to Government College, University of the Punjab, and took his MA in 1946. In the same year he was awarded a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge, 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, published in 1951, contained fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics which had already gained him an international reputation.

Salam returned to Pakistan in 1951 to teach mathematics at Government College, Lahore, and in 1952 became head of the Mathematics Department of the Punjab University. He had come back with the intention of founding a school of research, but it soon became clear that this was impossible. To pursue a career of research in theoretical physics he had no alternative at that time but to leave his own country and work abroad. Many years later he succeeded in finding a way to solve the heartbreaking dilemma faced by many young and gifted theoretical physicists from developing countries. At the ICTP, Trieste, which he created, he instituted the famous "Associateships" which allowed deserving young physicists to spend their vacations there in an invigorating atmosphere, in close touch with their peers in research and with the leaders in their own field, losing their sense of isolation and returning to their own country for nine months of the academic year refreshed and recharged.

In 1954 Salam left his native country for a lectureship at Cambridge, and since then has visited Pakistan as adviser on science policy. His work for Pakistan has, however, been far-reaching and influential. He was a member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, a member of the Scientific Commission of Pakistan and was Chief Scientific Adviser to the President from 1961 to 1974.

Since 1957 he has been Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College, London, and since 1964 has combined this position with that of Director of the ICTP, Trieste.

For more than forty years he has been a prolific researcher in theoretical elementary particle physics. He has either pioneered or been associated with all the important developments in this field, maintaining a constant and fertile flow of brilliant ideas. For the past thirty years he has used his academic reputation to add weight to his active and influential participation in international scientific affairs. He has served on a number of United Nations committees concerned with the advancement of science and technology in developing countries.

To accommodate the astonishing volume of activity that he undertakes, Professor Salam cuts out such inessentials as holidays, parties and entertainments. Faced with such an example, the staff of the Centre find it very difficult to complain that they are overworked.

He has a way of keeping his administrative staff at the ICTP fully alive to the real aim of the Centre - the fostering through training and research of the advancement of theoretical physics, with special regard to the needs of developing countries. Inspired by their personal regard for him and encouraged by the fact that he works harder than any of them, the staff cheerfully submit to working conditions that would be unthinkable here at the (International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna (IAEA). The money he received from the Atoms for Peace Medal and Award he spent on setting up a fund for young Pakistani physicists to visit the ICTP. He uses his share of the Nobel Prize entirely for the benefit of physicists from developing countries and does not spend a penny of it on himself or his family.

Abdus Salam is known to be a devout Muslim, whose religion does not occupy a separate compartment of his life; it is inseparable from his work and family life. 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."

The biography was written by Miriam Lewis, now at IAEA, Vienna, who was at one time on the staff of ICTP (International Centre For Theoretical Physics, Trieste).

From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1979, Editor Wilhelm Odelberg, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1980

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1979/salam-bio.html

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Professor Abdus Salam

The name of Abdus Salam is linked forever to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. Not only did he envisage the Centre as a place where scientists could carry out research of the highest level but through the ICTP he also managed to set an example for other nations to follow. Professor Salam became a widely known and charismatic figure in international scientific and political milieus. He travelled extensively throughout the world and, in his discussions with heads of states and governments, he was able, in a convincing manner, to put forward his views regarding the paramount importance of supporting science in their own countries for the benefit of humanity. His pursuit of a science for peace capable of filling the gap between the North and South of the planet shall remain as an example for those who endeavour to achieve the cultural and social development in poor countries. Thanks to the leadership of Professor Salam, ICTP has been a major forum for the international scientific community and a model for similar establishments both in Trieste and abroad.

Professor Salam has been one of the greatest exponents in physics this century. Born in Jhang, Pakistan in 1926, he was educated at Punjab University, St. John's College, Cambridge and Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1952. He then returned to Pakistan where he served as Professor at Government College, Lahore and Panjab University. There he suffered the isolation which scientists experience when they are not supported by their home countries. There was no tradition of doing any postgraduate work; there were no journals; there was no possibility of attending any conferences. He suffered the tragic dilemma of having to make the choice between physics or Pakistan. So he returned to Cambridge to take up the position of Lecturer. In 1957 he was appointed as Full Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College. Fired by his own unhappiness at having had to leave his country, he was determined to find a way of making it possible for those like him to continue working for their own communities while still having opportunities to remain first-rate scientists. It was thus in 1960 that he conceived the idea of setting up an International Centre for Theoretical Physics with funds from the international community.

Professor Salam is famous for that electroweak theory which is the mathematical and conceptual synthesis of the electromagnetic and weak interactions—the latest stage reached until now on the path towards the unification of the fundamental forces of nature. With this motivation, Professor Salam received the Nobel Prize for physics together with the Americans Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow in 1979. The validity of the theory was ascertained through experiments carried out at the superprotosynchrotron facility at CERN in Geneva which led to the discovery of the W and Z particles. Salam's electroweak theory is still the core of the "standard model" of high energy physics.

Professor Abdus Salam, Nobel Laureate in Physics (1979), Director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, from 1964 to December 1993, died in Oxford on 21 November 1996, after a long illness. He was buried in his native country, Pakistan.

http://oldwww.ictp.it/pages/mission/salam.html

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[ Dr. Abdus Salam Home Page ]

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Introduction

Professor Abdus Salam is a man of three worlds, the world of Islam, the world of Theoretical Physics, and the world of International Co-operation. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979, for his theoretical unification of the two fundamental forces of nature. A year before his Nobel Prize, he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London. He is a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of USA and also of USSR, a rare 'double-first' which demonstrates his important position in the world of Sciences. His association with UN goes back to 1955, when he became Scientific Secretary to the Geneva Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. He is very active in promoting scientific research in developing countries.

We are indeed privilged to have 'Bio-Data' of such a distinguished man. I therefore present to you: Professor Abdus Salam, Nobel Laureate, F.R.S; Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Imperial College of Sciences and Technology, London, and President of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics Trieste Italy.

Personal

Date of birth

29th Jan, 1926

Place of birth

Jhang, Pakistan

Nationality

Pakistan

Educational Career

• Govt. College, Jhang and Lahore, Pakistan (1938-1946)
• M.A (Punab University) First place in every examination at the Punjab University
• Foundation Scholar, St. John's College, Cambridge (1946-1949)
• B.A Honours Double first in Mathematics (Wrangler) and Physics.
• Cavendish Laboratory
• Ph. D in Theoretical Physics Cambridge (1952)

Awarded Smith's Prize by the University of Cambridge for the most outstanding pre-doctral contribution to physics (1950)

Appointments

1. Professor, Government College, Lahore (1951-1954)
2. Head of the Mathematics Department of Punjab University, Lahore (1951-54)
3. Lecturer, Cambridge University (Cambridge) (1954-1956)
4. Prof. of Theoretical Physics, London Univeristy.
5. Prof. of Theoretical Physics Imperial College (London) (1957)
6. Founder and Director, International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste) (1964-1993)
7. Elected Fellow, St. John's College (Cambridge) (1951-56)
8. Member, Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton) (1951)
9. Elected, Honorary Life Fellow, St. John's College (Cambridge)
10. Honorary President , (1993-)

United Nations Assignments

1. Scientific Secretary, Geneva Conferences on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy (1955 and 1958)
2. Elected Member of the Board of Governors, TAEA, Vienna (1962-63)
3. Member, United Nations Advisory Committee on Science and Technology (1964-75)
4. Elected Chairman, United Nations Advisory Committee on Science and Technology (1971-1972)
5. Member, United Nations Panel and Foundation Committee for the United Nations University (1970-73)
6. Member, United Nations University Advisory Committee (1981-83)
7. Member Council, University of Peace (Costa Rica) (1981-86)
8. Elected Chairman, UNSECO Advisory Panel on Science, Technology and Society (1981)

Other Assignments

1. Member, Scientific Council, SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) (1970)
2. Elected Vice President, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) (1972-78)
3. Elected First President of the Third World Academy of Sciences (1983)
4. Member of the CERN Scientific Policy Committee (1983-86)
5. Member of the Board of Directors of the Beijir Institute of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1986)
6. Member of the South Commision (1987- )
7. Elected 1st President of Third World Network of Scientific Organizations (1988)

Awards for contribution to physics

1. Hopkins Prize (Cambridge University) for the most outstanding contribution to physics during 1957-58 (1958)
2. Adams Prize (Cambridge Univeristy) (1958)
3. First receipient of Maxwell Medal and Award (Physical Society, London) (1961)
4. Hughes Medal (Royal Society, London) (1964)
5. J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Medal and Prize (University of Miami) (1971)
6. Guthrie Medal and Prize (Institute of Physics London) (1976)
7. Sir Devaprasad Sarvadhikary Gold Medal (Calcutta University) (1977)
8. Metteuci Medal (Accademia Nazionale di XL, Rome) (1978)
9. John Torrence Tate Medal (American Institute of Physics) (1978)
10. Roval Medal (Royal Society, London) (1978)
11. NOBEL PRIZE for Physics (Nobel Foundation) (1979)
12. Einstein Medal (UNESCO, Paris) (1979)
13. Shri R. D. Birla Award (Indian Physics Association) (1979)
14. Josef Stefan Medal (Josef Stefan Institute, Ljublijana) (1980)
15. Gold Medal for outstanding contribution to physics (Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague) (1981)
16. Lomonosov Gold Medal USSR (USSR Academy of Sciences) (1983)
17. Copley Medal, Royal Society London (1990)

Awards for contributions towards peace and promotion of international scientific collaboration

1. Atoms for Peace Medal and Award (Atoms for Peace Foundation) (1968)
2. Peace Medal (Charles University, Prague) (1981)
3. Premio Umberto Biancamano (Italy) (1986)
4. Dayemi International Peace Award (Bangladesh) (1986)
5. First Edinburgh Medal and Prize (Scotland) (1988)
6. "Genoa" International Development of Peoples Prize (Italy) (1988)
7. Catalunya International Prize (Spain) (1990)

Academies and Scocieties

1. Elected, Fellow, Pakistan Academy of Sciences (Islamabad) (1954)
2. Elected, Fellow of the Royal Society, London (1959)
3. Elected, Fellow, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Stockholm) (1970)
4. Elected, Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston) (1971)
5. Elected, Foreign Member, USSR Academy of Sciences (Moscow) (1971)
6. Elected, Foreign Associate, USA National Academy of Sciences (Washington) (1979)
7. Elected, Foreign Member, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome) (1979)
8. Elected, Foreign Member, Accademia Tiberina (Rome) (1979)
9. Elected, Foreign Member, Iraqi Academy (Baghdad) (1979)
10. Elected, Honorary Fellow, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Bombay) (1979)
11. Elected, Honorary Member, Korean Physics Society (Seoul) (1979)
12. Elected, Foreign Member, Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco (Rabat) (1980)
13. Elected, Foreign Member, Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze (dei XL) (Rome) (1980)
14. Elected, Member, European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Humanities (Paris) (1980)
15. Elected, Associate Member, Josef Stefan Institute (Ljublijana) (1980)
16. Elected, Foreign Fellow, Indian National Sciences Academy (New Delhi) (1980)
17. Elected, Fellow, Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (Dhaka) (1980)
18. Elected, Member, Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Vatican City) (1981)
19. Elected, Corresponding Member, Portuguese Academy of Sciences (Lisbon) (1981)
20. Founding Member, Third World Academy of Sciences Trieste (1983)
21. Elected, Corresponding Member, Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts (Zagreb) (1983)
22. Elected, Honorary Fellow, Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (1984)
23. Elected, Honorary Member, Polish Academy of Sciences (1985)
24. Elected, Corresponding Member, Academia de Ciencias Medicas, Fisicas y Naturales de Guatemala (1986)
25. Elected, Honorary Life Fellow, London Physical Society (1986)
26. Elected, Fellow, World Academy of Art and Science (Stockholm) (1986)
27. Elected, Corresponding Member, Academia de Ciencias Fisicas, Mathematicas y Naturales de Venezuela (1987)
28. Elected, Fellow, Pakistan Academy of Medical Sciences (1987)
29. Elected, Honorary Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1988)
30. Elected, Distinguished International Fellow of Sigma Xi (1988)
31. Elected, Honorary Member, Brazilian Mathematical Society (1989)
32. Elected, Honorary Member, National Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, Argentina (1989)
33. Elected, Honorary Member, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1990)
34. Elected, Member, Academia Eureopaea (1990)

Orders

1. Order of NISHAN-E-IMTIAZ (Pakistan) (1979)
2. Order of Andres Bello (Venezuela) (1980)
3. Order of Istiqlal (Jordan) (1980)
4. Cavaliere de Gran Croce dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (1980)
5. Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1989)

D.Sc. HONORIS CAUSE

1. Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan (1957)
2. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK (1971)
3. University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy (1979)
4. University of Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan (1979)
5. Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria, Lima, Peru (1980)
6. University of San Marcos, Lima, Peru (1980)
7. National University of San Antonio Abad, Cuzco, Peru (1980)
8. Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela (1980)
9. University of Wroclow, Wroclow, Poland (1980)
10. Yarmouk University, Yarmouk, Jordan (1980)
11. University of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey (1980)
12. Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India (1981)
13. Muslim University, Aligarh, India (1981)
14. Hindu University, Banaras, India (1981)
15. University of Chittagong, Bangladesh (1981)
16. University of Bristol, Bristol, UK (1981)
17. University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria (1981)
18. University of Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines (1982)
19. University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan (1983)
20. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain (1983)
21. The City College, The City University of New York, USA (1984)
22. University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya (1984)
23. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Cuyo, Argentina (1985)
24. Universidad Nacional de la Plata, La Plata, Argentina (1985)
25. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK (1985)
26. University of Goteborg, Goteborg, Sweden (1985)
27. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria (1986)
28. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland (1986)
29. University of Science and Technology, Heifei, China (1986)
30. The City University, London, UK (1986)
31. Punjab University, Chandigarh, India (1987)
32. Medicina Alternativa, Colombo, Sri Lanka (1987)
33. National University of Benin, Contonou, Benin (1987)
34. University of Exetes, UK (1987)
35. University of Gent, Belgium (1988)
36. "Creation" International Association of scientists and Intelligentsia, USSR (1989)
37. Bendel State University, Ekpoma, Nigeria (1990)
38. University of Ghana (1990)
39. University of Tucuman, Argentina (1991)

Pakistan Assignments

1. Member, Atomic Energy Commission, Pakistan (1958-74)
2. Elected President, Pakistan Association for Advancement of Sciences (1961-1962)
3. Adviser, Education Commission Pakistan (1959)
4. Member Scientific Commission Pakistan (1959)
5. Chief Scientific Adviser to President of Pakistan (1961-74)
6. Founder Chairman, Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Committee (1961-64)
7. Governor from Pakistan to the International Atomic Energy Egency (1962-63)
8. Member National Science Council, Pakistan (1963-75)
9. Member, Board of Pakistan Science Foundation (1973-77)

Pakistani Awards

1. Sitara-e-Pakistan (1959)
2. Pride of Performance Medal and Award (1959)
3. The Order of Nishan-e-Imtiaz (the highest civilian award) (1979)

As "Servant of Peace"

1. Member, Scientific Council, SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) (1970)
2. Awarded the Atoms for Peace Medal and Award (Atoms for peace foundation) (1968)
3. Peace Medal (Charles University, Prague) (1981)
4. Premio Umberto Biancamano, Italy (1968)
5. Dayemi International Peace Award (Bangladesh) (1986)
6. Member, Council, University for Peace, Costa Rica (1981-86)

Published Papers

Around 250 scientific papers on physics of elementary particles. Papers on scientific and educational policies for developing countries and Pakistan.

Scientific Contributions

Research on physics of elementary particles. Particular contributions:

1. two-component neutrino theory and the prediction of the inevitable parity violation in weak interaction;
2. 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,Z. particles before their experimental discovery;
3. symmetry properties of elementary particles; unitary symmetry;
4. renormalization of meson theories;
5. gravity theory and its role in particle physics; two tensor theory of gravity and strong interaction physics;
6. unification of electroweak with strong nuclear forces, grand (elec- tro-nuclear) unification; and
7. related prediction of proton-decay;
8. supersymmetry theory, in particular formulation of superspace and formalism of super fields.

http://www.alislam.org/library/salam-1.html

An interview with Dr. Abdus Salam

(New Scientist 26 August, 1976)

Professor Abdus Salam

is a brilliant theoretical physicist who was born of a Moslem family in what is now Pakistan. He shares his enormous intellectual energy between the pursuit of quarks and a passionate advocacy of third world needs. He talked about his life to Dr. Robert Walgate.

Abdul Salam in a lecture delivered last December to the students of the University of stockholm, spoke with controlled anger of the exploitation of the third world by the advanced nations. Piling fact upon fact, finally he burst out passionately with these lines of Omar Khayyam:

           "Ah love! could thou and I with fate conspire             To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire             Would not we shatter it to bits and then             Remould it nearer to the heart's desire" 

Salam physicist, FRS, Moslem born by the banks of the Chenab, passionate advocate for the third world has the heart of a poet and the mind of a scientist. He loves beauty and looks for it in his science. He is an excellent physicist concerned with deep pattern; he is also deeply compassionate man. These two threads intertwine through his life.

His work in particle physics has made many important contributions to his subject, not least the unification of two of the forces of nature - the weak and the electromagnetic - in a model which is receiving thorough experimental support. He commutes between Imperial College, London, and his creation, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, a centre where third world scientist's can keep abreast of development in physics. At 50, Salam is full of energy, travelling all over the world to give lectures, make speeches and - often successfully - persuade politicians to realise visions. He fell in love with United Nations when he attended the first Atoms for Peace conference in 1955, and helped set up the UN Advisory Committee for Science and Technology, of which he was an active member from 1963 until last year. And for eight years he wasby personal invitation scientific adviser to President Ayub Khan of Pakistan.

He is direct, disarming, humorous deeply serious. He comes of a line of Rajput princelings converted to Islam about the year 1200. His forebears were scholars and physicians; but they were poor, Salam's Moslem upbringing gave him the mores of Islam, the moral code of the Koran, but it is relatively recently that he has come to a spiritual discovery of his religion. "Islam to me is a very personal thing." Salam says, "Every human being needs religion, as Jung has so firmly argued; this deeper religious feeling is one of the primary urges of man-kind." But Salam does not consign to enternal hell fire those outside the fold: "I would like you to become a Moslem, and share thee feelings I have but I wouldn't stick swords into you if you didn't!"

Salam does not believe that there is any conflict between his science and his religion. In physics, he has mostly been involved with symmetries; and "that may come from my Islamic heritage; for that is the way we consider the universe created by God, with ideas of beauty and symmetry and harmony, with regularity and without chaos. The Koran places a lot of emphasis on natural law. Thus Islam plays a large role in my view of science; we are trying to discover what the Lord thought; of course we miserably fail most of the time but sometimes there is great satisfaction in seeing a little bit of the truth." Salam also stresses that from 750-1200 AD science was almost totally Islamic, and that, "I am simply carrying that tradition on."

"My father had not taken scholarship as a profession, but he was very keen that I should succeed that way. He influenced me very strongly in that respect." The best jobs in Pakistan were civil service jobs; but Salam took a maths degree in Lahore, won a unique scholarship to Cambridge, and while there 'drifted into physics'.

"There was no question I was very fortunate. If I had not been awarded scholarship by the then Indian government it would have been totally impossible financially for me to come to Cambridge." The way Salam got the scholarship is to him "something of a miracle". During the Second World War, many Indian politicians wanted to help the British was effort. One of them collected a fund of about 15,000 pounds but the war ended, and he had to decide what to do with the money. He instituted five scholarships for foreign education.

Salam and four others were selected. Salam had taken the good care to apply to Cambridge simulataneously; and "the same day I got the scholarship, 3 September 1946, I also had a cable saying that an unexpected vacancy had come up at St John's college - admissions were usually done much earlier - and could I come up that October?" So Salam went to Cambridge, but his four colleagues who were to be offered places next year, never made it. The munificent politician died that year; his successor cancelled the scholarship scheme. "In the end all that effort to collect a War Fund, for buying munitions ended up in one thing alone: to get me to Cambridge!" Salam laughed. "Now one could call it a set of coincidences; but my father didn't believe this. He had desired and prayed for this and saw this - I think, rightly - as an answer to his prayers."

Salam emphasises the general moral. "Opportunities are so sporadic in the third world that the man who is absolutely tops may not even get a chance." There is everything against doing science as a profession; "it is poorly paid, very little endowed. You have to be highly motivated if you take it up; it carries no influence or status in a status conscious society."

In Cambridge Salam took the part II mathematical tripos and part II physics and came out a Wrangler - a first class degree. The Cambridge tradition was that those with firsts did experiment, while seconds and thirds did theory. "But for experimental work you need qualities I totally lack - patience, an ability to make things work - I knew I couldn't do it. Impossible. I just hadn't got the patience."

Salam found his way onto some problems in quantum electrodynamics, then a subject in the throes of birth (now the most accurate theory known).

"There were a few problems left" said his supervisor, "but all of those have been solved by Matthews". (Paul Matthews, now a professional colleague of Salam's at Imperial College and shortly to become Vice Chancellor of Bath University. He was then finishing as Cambridge research student). "So I went to Matthews and I said - have you got any crumb left?" Matthews gave him an important problem "for three months". If Salam hadn't solved it in that time Matthews would take it back. Salam solved it, and thereby made an important contribution to "re-normalising" (eliminating infinities from) meson theories. It took five months. That was his PhD!

Salam returned to what was now Pakistan and to his old university of the Punjab in Lahore as a professor. There was no tradition of doing any post-graduate work; there were no journals; Salam's salary was 700 pound a year and "I certainly couldn't put the journals on that". There was no possibility of attending any conferences. The nearest physcist to Salam was in Bombay and that was another country.

The head of Salam's institution told him that though he knew Salam had done some research he could "forget about it". He offered Salam a choice of three jobs; bursar, warden of a hall of residence; or president of the football club. "I chose the football club."

The whole tenor of society was geared against any continuation of research work in physics. Salam was faced with a tragic dilemma; "I had to make a choice; physics or Pakistan" Salam returned to Cambridge. There and subsequently at Imperial College, London (where he was appointed professor in 1957 to start the department of theoretical physics) Salam threw himslef passionately into physics, inventing the two component theory of the neutrino, working on particle symmetries and in particular SU (3), and gauge theories with the unification of weak and electromagnetic forces as a goal. But, in addition to this work, his burning concern, fired by his own unhappiness at having to leave his country was to find ways of making it possible for those like him, to continue working for their own communities while still having opportunities to remain first rate scientists. "I believe passionately that developing countries need scientists as good as the developed countries do, certainly in the university system. So in 1960 Salam conceived the idea of setting up an International Centre for Theoretical Physics, with funds from the international community, for example, the UN.

To such a centre, those working in the developing countries would come and with frequency to renew their contacts with physics while spending the bulk of their time teaching in thier own countries. The cnetre - rather than the developing country governments would pay for such visits. Salam, after meeting a lot of indifference in the first world, finally convinced the International Atomic Energy Agency to take up the idea of the centre. Italy, the poor man of Europe, came up with the most generous offer of site and running costs and ICTP was established in 1964 in Triests.

After an experience of running the Centre for 12 years there has been a shift in the disciplines, the Centre now emphsises, a shift away from fundamental physics' to physics which may be more relevant to the needs of the developing countries - for example physics of the condensed matter. "We do post PhD work, not with an eye to industrial laboratories - there are none in most of our countries - but the hope is that if you have teachers in the universities who have worked, for example, in solid state physics, then the next generation at least will have an orientation which is much more industrial.

"Thus we are stressing research in physics of solds, plasma physics, physics of oceans and the earth, applicable mathematics; physics of technology, of natural resources; together with physics on the frontier. As an exmaple, in solid state physics, professor John Ziman of Bristol, Norman March of Imperial College and stig Lundqvist from Sweden, Chiarotti from Italy, Garcia Molinere from Spain and their collegues have created (through the work they do at the Centre) a mini revolution in studies of this subject in the developing countries. This is evidenced in the degree of scientific maturity we now notice in the people coming to ICTP compared to 1964."

Salam emphasises that "It is a most important point to make that - even in a relatively large country like Pakistan - the active physics community numbers no more than 50 persons for a population of some 70 million people. And this is the total sample of men who are responsible fro all advanced teachings, for all norms and standards in physics, taught for engineering as well as for all advice to the government on matters concerning technology based on physics."

"Now considering that the active physics community is so small, one can argue whether the teachers we train should be high energy physicists or solid state physicists.

"Many people argue that we shouldn't do any fundamental science at all but concentrate on, say, applied physics of solar energy. Unfortunately things are not so simple. For solar energy research the need is there, but the money is not there, nor are the facilities.

"In the end it will be the U.S physicists, with the mutimillion dollar facilities available to them, who will produce a design that is the epitome of all designs for economic devices in the solar energy field.

"But this does not mean we should not have men trained at the highest possible level in solar energy work, men who know from inside what the current work in this discipline is. Perhaps the ideal would be men who commute between fundamentals of solid state physics as well as its application to say, solar energy devices. I do not believe this is impossible. To be multidisciplinary in physics is the cross those working in developing countries must be prepared to bear. Another is the philosophy we are trying to live up to at ICTP."

Salam's concern for the third world has not been confined to ICTP. He has struggled, from inside, with the educational, scientific, and development policies of Pakistan. But his first love has always been Physics, with a life that is a tangle of Physics and non-physics interests. "It is hard to switch; you find you are in the middle of something very exciting and then you must simply drop it."

Salam gave a current example. At present he is alone with a colleague, Jogesh Pati, in proposing that quarks can be free. It is the right psychological moment to develop the idea, for quark confinement is in theoretical difficulties. But with constant interruption of work through the demands on his time in running the Centre and keeping it alive, Salam bemoans the fact that he cannot spare enough time to develop his ideas.

Does Salam think he's got the balance about right? "Well sometimes I feel I'm being very foolish. I do what is necessary to achieve what I want to but often less than that." Salam is a man with tremendous enthusiasm - but he is one man without time, strung across two worlds and two problems. It is a loss to the world that he cannot have two lives.

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[ Dr. Abdus Salam Home Page ]

http://www.alislam.org/library/salam-3.html

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Abdus Salam -- Past And Present

by Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy

The News International (Pakistan), 29 January, 1996

"Dear Abdus, On 29 January, 1996 you will celebrate your 70th birthday and I should like to send to you the best wishes in the name of your European colleagues.....I would like to remember the day when I first met you. It was in December 1956 when you gave a talk at the Rutherford Laboratory about your two-component theory in a colloquium which was chaired by Wolfgang Pauli and when at the end he publicly apologized that he had discouraged you to publish this fundamentally new theory...Apart from your scientific successes, the foundation of ICTP in Trieste was one of the greatest achievements in this century."

In the above lines Herwig Schopper, President of the European Physical Society, pays tribute to one of the most remarkable men of science of the 20th century, Professor Abdus Salam. In alluding to Salam's unpublished 1956 two-component theory of the neutrino, Schopper reminds us that Salam had narrowly missed credit for a fundamental scientific discovery and for which, instead, two American physicists shared the Nobel Prize in 1958. Had Salam not made an unfortunate error of judgment, he would have had not one but two Nobel Prizes today.

Tragically, the numerous congratulatory messages from the world's prominent scientists might be incomprehensible to the man to whom they have been sent. Now confined to his wheelchair, he is the victim of a mysterious neurological disorder leading to a gradual loss of control over body functions. Visitors who have met him in recent months bring back little good news. Today it is hard to recognize in him the Salam of yesteryears -- enthusiastic, vibrant, bluntly authoritarian, and with a mind sharper than a razor's edge.

The Salam of days gone by was a man visibly possessed by two passions. First, an urge to understand the nature of physical reality using the tools of mathematical physics. Second, the desire to put Pakistan on the high road to prosperity through science.

Salam's first passion brought him fame and recognition. In 1949 this young prodigy, born in a very ordinary lower middle class family in Jhang, earned a first-class degree in physics from Cambridge University in just a year. Then in 1950 he solved an important problem in renormalisation theory and instantly became a minor celebrity. In 1951 he returned to Government College, Lahore, but found to his disappointment that research was not encouraged, even frowned upon. Without a library or colleagues to talk to, he reluctantly went back to Britain in 1954.

By the early '60s, Salam was already one of the world's top particle physicists with an enviable reputation in this most difficult and fundamental area of science. But Salam was a political animal as well. He skillfully used his growing reputation to push his European and American colleagues into supporting his dream of a major centre for physicists from the developing world. With his unhappy period at Government College at the back of his mind, Salam wanted a place where third world physicists could practise the advanced science of the West without being forced to become part of the brain drain, as he himself had been.

In 1964, supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Salam succeeded in setting up the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. Why Italy and not Pakistan? The reason was simple: Pakistan showed no interest, but Italy wanted the centre and was willing to put down a lot of money for it. Today the ICTP is a sprawling complex of buildings regularly visited by scientists engaged in research from over 50 developing countries. There have been over a thousand visits by Pakistani scientists.

Combining administration with research is never simple. But over a period of four decades, Salam won about 20 international awards which, apart from the 1979 Nobel Prize, includes the Hopkins Prize of Cambridge University for the most outstanding contribution to physics in 1957-1958, the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society, the Oppenheimer Memorial Prize, the Adam's Prize, and many others. But more than a winner of prestigious prizes, posterity will record Salam, together with Steven Weinberg, as one of the unifiers of the apparently different fundamental forces which govern the universe.

In recent years, Salam's unified electroweak theory has been elevated to the status of a touchstone. Now generally called the Standard Model of particle physics, it has been tested in dozens of clever experiments and has passed with flying colours in each. Today the search for the "Higgs" particle, predicted by Salam, is considered the number one priority in the world of physics. Billions of dollars continue to be spent on building accelerators with energies high enough to produce this highly elusive particle.

With prizes, awards, seminars and meetings, the world of physics has paid its due to Salam. But what about his country?

Under Ayub Khan, Salam wielded considerable influence. As the chief scientific adviser to the President, he was instrumental in launching a massive training programme for scientists, in setting up PINSTECH as a high quality research institution, and in creating the space agency SUPARCO. His influence continued, albeit to a lesser extent, in the Yahya and early Bhutto years.

1974 marked the turning point in Salam's life. By a decision of the National Assembly, the Ahmedis were excommunicated from Islam. Salam resigned from his official position as chief scientific adviser in protest. On Bhutto's request, he agreed to help informally. But from then onwards his involvement with the Bhutto government was more symbolic than substantial.

Somewhat paradoxically, Salam enjoyed better relations with General Zia, who received him as a state guest and awarded him the Nishan-i-Imtiaz in 1979. However, Salam was carefully excluded from exercising any real influence over scientific matters. Benazir Bhutto, on the other hand, during her first term as Prime Minister, felt no need to accede to Salam's request for an audience with her. And Nawaz Sharif, at a Government College function, topped it all by reading from a list of college alumni who had achieved distinction and failed to mention the most distinguished one of them all.

Why did the leaders of government in Pakistan choose to drive out the single Pakistani scientist who put this country on the scientific map of the world? The answer is obvious. Our leaders have always acquiesced, and even pandered to, the growth of intolerance in the country. Salam was but an incidental victim; to defend him was considered not worth the political risk.

In 1979, when Salam visited Islamabad at General Zia's invitation, the physics department at Quaid-i-Azam University wanted Salam to give a lecture on his Nobel Prize winning theory. But, because of threats from a student group with a penchant for violence, this invitation was never conveyed to him by the university authorities. There are other examples: a cover story in the weekly Takbeer accused Salam of selling out Pakistan's nuclear secrets. This perverted concotion would have been amusing, rather than simply disgusting, had it not been so laced with crude insults and abuse.

Fearful of being attacked, many admirers of Salam's achievements have chosen to remain silent. Consequently, unlike India which has science institutions named after men like Saha, Raman, Bose and Bhabha, Pakistan does not have any institution named after it's one and only great scientist. Nor is his name made known to children through their text-books, or through television and radio, even though the names of far lesser persons are. Had Salam been an Indian, there is little doubt that he would have been in the ranks of his equals.

Prejudices against Salam are not simply a matter of the past. Some months ago the government created a committee which would set up a new centre for physics in Islamabad. Reportedly after a brief internal debate, the committee decided against naming the centre after Salam. No reason was given.

And so it puzzles me why, in spite of all this, Salam remained committed to Pakistan. Was it just plain stubbornness? Or was it that certain beliefs acquired in one's early years remain, no matter what? Whatever the reasons, this commitment was transparent. Salam kept his Pakistani citizenship, spurning British and Italian offers. At his Trieste centre, all Pakistanis -- including staunch anti-Ahmedis -- got preferential treatment and had easier access to the director. Sometimes visitors from other countries resented this. I also think Salam's favouritism was wrong as a matter of principle, but it is a clear indication of his deep attachment to his land of birth.

More importantly, for over a decade, Salam has quietly been supporting needy science students throughout Pakistan with his Nobel Prize money. The money has also been used to purchase scientific equipment for half a dozen Pakistani colleges, and to support an annually awarded prize for scientific research.

Life's long journey, and debilitating illness, made Salam deeply sensitive to estrangement from his country. How much so, I saw from close at a 3 day conference held in Trieste to honour his retirement from Imperial College, London. Professor Ghulam Murtaza and I had been invited from the physics department of Quaid-e-Azam University to attend this veritable feast for the intellect. The world's top physicists deliberated upon startling new clues to the birth of the universe, down to relatively more mundane matters like quarks and superconductivity.

One the third day of the conference, Salam was presented an honorary doctoral degree by the University of Petersburg. The conference hall was full. Flanked on his left by Nobel Prize winners C.N. Yang and J. Schrieffer, and on his right by the rector of the University, Salam listened from his wheelchair but made no attempt to speak. At the end of the formal proceedings, a multitude of people from the international scientific community thronged forward and stood patiently in line to offer congratulations.

As I watched, it was the turn of a nervous young Pakistani visitor to the ICTP. "Sir, I am a student from Pakistan. We are very proud of you..." The rest I was unable to hear clearly. Salam's shoulders shook and tears coursed silently down his face.

A feeling of deep sadness overcame me. Nature has chosen to be cruel to Salam. But nature is to be forgiven because it is blind, both in its gifts and its punishments. Much less easy to forgive is the treatment that we in Pakistan have given to our best.

(Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy is professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.)

http://www.alislam.org/library/salam-4.htm