Biography
Youth and education
Abdus Salam was born in small town of Jhang, in 1926[4]. Salam's father was an education officer in the Department of Education of British Punjab State in a poor farming district. Salam's family had a long tradition of piety and passion for learning[4].
At age fourteen, Salam scored the highest marks ever recorded for the Matriculation Examination at the Punjab University.[5] He won a full scholarship to the Government College University of Lahore, British Punjab State[6]. Salam was a versatile scholar, interested in English literature in which he excelled.[7] But, soon picked up Mathematics as his concentration[8] As a fourth-year student there, he published his work on Srinivasa Ramanujan's problems in mathematics, and took his B.A. in Mathematics in 1944.[9] He received his M.A. in Mathematics from the Government College University in 1946.[4] 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.[10] In 1950, he received the Smith's Prize from Cambridge University for the most outstanding pre-doctoral contribution to Physics[11].
He obtained a Ph.D degree in Theoretical Physics from Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge.[12][13] His doctoral thesis contained comprehensive and fundamental work in Quantum Electrodynamics[14]. By the time it was published in 1951, it had already gained him an international reputation and the Adams Prize.[15]
Academic career
After his doctorate in 1952, Salam returned to the Government College University as a Professor of Mathematics which he remained there till 1954. During the same period, he was the Chairman of the Department of Mathematics, and professor as well, at the Punjab University. As he became the chairman, Salam sought to update the university curriculum, making course of Quantum mechanics part of undergraduate course.[16] This was soon reverted back by the Vice-Chancellor, and Salam decided to teach an evening course in Quantum Mechanics outside the regular curriculum.[17] While, Abdus Salam had the mixed popularity in the university, Abdus Salam began to supervised the education of students who had particularly influenced by Salam.[18] As the result, Riazuddin remained the only student of Abdus Salam who has privileged to study under Abdus Salam at the Under and Post-graduate level in Lahore, and Post-doctoral in Cambridge University. In 1953, Salam was unable to established a research institute in Lahore, as he faced strong opposition from his peers. As a result of 1953 riots in Lahore, Salam went back to Cambridge and joined St John's College, Cambridge, and took a position as a professor of mathematics in 1954.[19]
In 1956, he was invited to take a chair at Imperial College of London, where he and Paul Matthews created a lively theoretical physics group. As time passes, this department became one of the prestigious research department that included well known physicists such as Steven Weinberg, Tom Kibble, Gerald Guralnik, C. R. Hagen, and John Ward. In 1957, Punjab University conferred Abdus Salam with Honorary doctorate for his contribution in Particle physics.[20]
In 1960, President Field Marshal Ayub Khan appointed Dr. Abdus Salam as Science Adviser to the President. As he replaced dr. Salimuzzaman Siddiqui as Science Adviser, Salam played a very significant and influential 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. Due to Prof. Salam's influence President Ayub Khan had the Nuclear power plant near Karachi (KANUPP) personally approved, against the wishes of his own Government[21]. Salam was also instrumental in setting up five Superior Science colleges throughout Pakistan to further the progress in science in the country. 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 1964, Salam founded International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, in the North-East of Italy. He was the Director of ICTP from 1964 to December 1993. In 1974, he founded International Nathiagali Summer College (INSC) to promote science in his country. The ICTP Centre has since been renamed to (The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics). In 1959, he became one of the youngest to be named Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 33. His dedicated personal assistant was Jean Bouckley.
In 1998, the Government of Pakistan issued a stamp carrying his portrait as part of a series entitled "Scientists of Pakistan."[22]. He was a foreign fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences [23]
Religion
Abdus Salam was a devout Muslim, and a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community[24], 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."[15]
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.[25]
In 1974, when the Parliament of Pakistan declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims, he left Pakistan for London in protest.
Death
Salam died on 21st November 1996 at the age of 70 in Oxford, England after a long illness. His body was brought to Pakistan and kept in Darul Ziafat, where some 13,000 men and women visited to pay their last respects. Some 30,000 people attended his funeral prayers.
Salam was buried 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 nonsensical "First Nobel Laureate".[26]
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, the National Space Agency of Pakistan. He helped Pakistan's scientists and engineers to be trained in nuclear applications and nuclear science.
Legacy
Abdus Salam's work in Pakistan has been far reaching and influential. He has made extraordinary contributions to Pakistan's nuclear, space and missile programs. Therefore, in 1998, the Government of Pakistan issued a commemorative stamp to honour the services of Abdus Salam as part of its "Scientists of Pakistan" series.
Abdus Salam has been commemorated by Pakistan's noted and prominent scientists, who were also his students. Many scientists have recalled their college experiences. Ghulam Murtaza, a professor of plasma physics at the Government College University, Lahore has said:
" 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 seek 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" [27].
Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad, former PAEC chairman and a life long friend of Salam who previously served as a former 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].
In August 1996, former chairmen of PAEC and lifelong friends, Munir Ahmad Khan and dr. Ishfaq Ahmad met with Salam in Oxford, United Kingdom. Munir Ahmad Khan (late), former PAEC chairman who headed the nuclear weapons and power program, 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 choose to ignore Dr. Salam, but the world at large will always remember him[27]."
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.
A second movie is planned by pilgrimfilms.it to be released in 2011.[28]
