Mohammad Abdus Salam (; Punjabi, Urdu: عبد
السلام‬‎, pronounced [əbd̪ʊs
səlaːm]; 29 January 1926 – 21 November
1996), was a Pakistani theoretical physicist.
He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics
with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for
his contribution to the electroweak unification
theory. He was the first Pakistani to receive
a Nobel Prize in science and the second from
an Islamic country to receive any Nobel Prize
(after Anwar Sadat of Egypt).Salam was science
advisor to the Ministry of Science and Technology
in Pakistan from 1960 to 1974, a position
from which he was supposed to play a major
and influential role in the development of
the country's science infrastructure. Salam
contributed to developments in theoretical
and particle physics. He was the founding
director of the Space and Upper Atmosphere
Research Commission (SUPARCO), and responsible
for the establishment of the Theoretical Physics
Group (TPG) in the Pakistan Atomic Energy
Commission (PAEC). As Science Advisor, Salam
played a role in Pakistan's development of
the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and may
have contributed as well to development of
atomic bomb project of Pakistan in 1972; for
this, he is viewed as the "scientific father"
of this programme. In 1974, Abdus Salam departed
from his country, in protest, after the Parliament
of Pakistan passed unanimously a parliamentary
bill declaring members of the Ahmadiyya movement
to which Salam belonged non-Muslims. In 1998,
following the country's nuclear tests, the
Government of Pakistan issued a commemorative
stamp, as a part of "Scientists of Pakistan",
to honour the services of Salam.Salam's notable
achievements include the Pati–Salam model,
magnetic photon, vector meson, Grand Unified
Theory, work on supersymmetry and, most importantly,
electroweak theory, for which he was awarded
the Nobel Prize. Salam made a major contribution
in quantum field theory and in the advancement
of Mathematics at Imperial College London.
With his student, Riazuddin, Salam made important
contributions to the modern theory on neutrinos,
neutron stars and black holes, as well as
the work on modernising the quantum mechanics
and quantum field theory. As a teacher and
science promoter, Salam is remembered as a
founder and scientific father of mathematical
and theoretical physics in Pakistan during
his term as the chief scientific advisor to
the president. Salam heavily contributed to
the rise of Pakistani physics to the physics
community in the world. Even until shortly
before his death, Salam continued to contribute
to physics, and to advocate for the development
of science in Third-World countries.
== Biography ==
=== Youth and education ===
Abdus Salam was born to Chaudhry Muhammad
Hussain and Hajira Hussain, into a Punjabi
Muslim family that was part of the Ahmadiyya
Movement in Islam. In terms of caste-affiliation,
they were Jats of Rajput descent from Jhang
on his father's side while his mother was
a Kakazai from Gurdaspur. His grandfather,
Gul Muhammad, was a religious scholar as well
as a physician while his father was an education
officer in the Department of Education of
Punjab State in a poor farming district.
Salam very early established a reputation
throughout the Punjab and later at the University
of Cambridge for outstanding brilliance and
academic achievement. At age 14, Salam scored
the highest marks ever recorded for the matriculation
(entrance) examination at the Punjab University.
He won a full scholarship to the Government
College University of Lahore, Punjab State.
Salam was a versatile scholar, interested
in Urdu and English literature in which he
excelled. But he soon picked up Mathematics
as his concentration. Salam's mentor and tutors
wanted him to become an English teacher, but
Salam decided to stick with Mathematics 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. His father wanted him to join Indian
Civil Service. In those days, the Indian Civil
Service was the highest aspiration for young
university graduates and civil servants occupied
a respected place in the civil society. Respecting
his father's wish, Salam tried for the Indian
Railways but did not qualify for the service
as he failed the medical optical tests because
he had worn spectacles since an early age.
The results further concluded that Salam failed
a mechanical test required by the railway
engineers to gain a commission in Indian Railways,
and moreover that Salam was too young to compete
for the job. Therefore, Indian Railways rejected
Abdus Salam's job application. While in Lahore,
Abdus Salam went on to attend the graduate
school of Government College University. He
received his MA in Mathematics from the Government
College University in 1946. That same year,
he was awarded a scholarship to St John's
College, Cambridge, where he completed 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. After finishing his
degrees, Fred Hoyle advised Salam to spend
another year in the Cavendish Laboratory to
do research in experimental physics, but Salam
had no patience for carrying out long experiments
in the laboratory. Salam returned to Jhang,
Punjab (now part of Pakistan) and renewed
his scholarship and returned to the United
Kingdom to do his doctorate.He obtained a
PhD degree in theoretical physics from the
Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. His doctoral
thesis titled "Developments in quantum theory
of fields" contained comprehensive and 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.
During his doctoral studies, his mentors challenged
him to solve within one year an intractable
problem which had defied such great minds
as Dirac and Feynman. Within six months, Salam
had found a solution for the renormalisation
of meson theory. As he proposed the solution
at the Cavendish Laboratory, Salam had attracted
the attention of Bethe, Oppenheimer and Dirac.
=== Academic career ===
After receiving his doctorate in 1951, Salam
returned to Lahore at the Government College
University as a Professor of Mathematics where
he remained till 1954. In 1952, he was appointed
professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics
at the neighbouring University of the Punjab.
In the latter capacity, Salam sought to update
the university curriculum, introducing a course
in Quantum mechanics as a part of the undergraduate
curriculum. However, this initiative was soon
reverted by the Vice-Chancellor, and Salam
decided to teach an evening course in Quantum
Mechanics outside the regular curriculum.
While Salam enjoyed a mixed popularity in
the university, he began to supervise the
education of students who were particularly
influenced by him. As a result, Riazuddin
remained the only student of Salam who had
the privilege to study under Salam at the
undergraduate and post-graduate level in Lahore,
and post-doctoral level in Cambridge University.
In 1953, Salam was unable to establish a research
institute in Lahore, as he faced strong opposition
from his peers. In 1954, Salam took fellowship
and became one of the earliest fellows of
the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. As a result
of 1953 Lahore riots, Salam went back to Cambridge
and joined St John's College, and took a position
as a professor of mathematics in 1954.
In 1957, he was invited to take a chair at
Imperial College, London, and he and Paul
Matthews went on to set up the Theoretical
Physics Department at Imperial College. As
time passed, this department became one of
the prestigious research departments that
included well known physicists such as Steven
Weinberg, Tom Kibble, Gerald Guralnik, C.
R. Hagen, Riazuddin, and John Ward.
In 1957, Punjab University conferred Salam
with an Honorary doctorate for his contribution
in Particle physics. The same year with help
from his mentor, Salam launched a scholarship
programme for his students in Pakistan. Salam
retained strong links with Pakistan, and visited
his country from time to time. At Cambridge
and Imperial College he formed a group of
theoretical physicists, the majority of whom
were his Pakistani students. At age 33, Salam
became one of the youngest persons to be elected
a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1959.
Salam took a fellowship at the Princeton University
in 1959, where he met with J. Robert Oppenheimer
and to whom he presented his research work
on neutrinos. Oppenheimer and Salam discussed
the foundation of electrodynamics, problems
and their solution. His dedicated personal
assistant was Jean Bouckley. In 1980, Salam
became a foreign fellow of the Bangladesh
Academy of Sciences.
=== Scientific career ===
Early in his career, Salam made an important
and significant contribution in quantum electrodynamics
and quantum field theory, including its extension
into particle and nuclear physics. In his
early career in Pakistan, Salam was greatly
interested in mathematical series and their
relation to physics. Salam had played an influential
role in the advancement of nuclear physics,
but he maintained and dedicated himself to
mathematics and theoretical physics and focused
Pakistan to do more research in theoretical
physics. However, he regarded nuclear physics
(nuclear fission and nuclear power) as a non-pioneering
part of physics as it had already "happened".
Even in Pakistan, Salam was the leading driving
force in theoretical physics in Pakistan,
with many scientists he continued to influence
and encourage to keep their work on theoretical
physics.
Salam had a prolific research career in theoretical
and high-energy physics. Salam had worked
on theory of the neutrino – an elusive particle
that was first postulated by Wolfgang Pauli
in the 1930s. Salam introduced chiral symmetry
in the theory of neutrinos. The introduction
of chiral symmetry played crucial role in
subsequent development of the theory of electroweak
interactions. Salam later passed his work
to Riazuddin, who made pioneering contributions
in neutrinos. Salam introduced the massive
Higgs bosons to the theory of the Standard
Model, where he later predicted the existence
of proton decay. In 1963, Salam published
his theoretical work on the vector meson.
The paper introduced the interaction of vector
meson, photon (vector electrodynamics), and
the renormalisation of vector mesons' known
mass after the interaction. In 1961, Salam
began to work with John Clive Ward on symmetries
and electroweak unification. In 1964, Salam
and Ward worked on a Gauge theory for the
weak and electromagnetic interaction, subsequently
obtaining SU(2) × U(1) model. Salam was convinced
that all the elementary particle interactions
are actually the gauge interactions. In 1968,
together with Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow,
Salam formulated the mathematical concept
of their work. While in Imperial College,
Salam, along with Glashow and Jeffrey Goldstone,
mathematically proved the Goldstone's theorem,
that a massless spin-zero object must appear
in a theory as a result of spontaneous breaking
of a continuous global symmetry. In 1960,
Salam and Weinberg incorporated the Higgs
mechanism into Glashow's discovery, giving
it a modern form in electroweak theory, and
thus theorised the Standard Model. In 1968,
together with Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow,
Salam finally formulated the mathematical
concept of their work.In 1966, Salam carried
out pioneering work on a hypothetical particle.
Salam showed the possible electromagnetic
interaction between the Magnetic monopole
and the C-violation, thus he formulated the
magnetic photon.Following the publication
of PRL Symmetry Breaking papers in 1964, Steven
Weinberg and Salam were the first to apply
the Higgs mechanism to electroweak symmetry
breaking. Salam provided a mathematical postulation
for the interaction between the Higgs boson
and the electroweak symmetry theory.In 1972,
Salam began to work with Indian-American theoretical
physicist Jogesh Pati. Pati wrote to Salam
several times expressing interest to work
under Salam's direction, in response to which
Salam eventually invited Pati to the ICTP
seminar in Pakistan. Salam suggested to Pati
that there should be some deep reason why
the protons and electrons are so different
and yet carry equal but opposite electric
charge. Protons carry quarks, but the electroweak
theory was concerned only with the electrons
and neutrinos, with nothing postulated about
quarks. If all of nature's ingredients could
be brought together in one new symmetry, it
might reveal a reason for the various features
of these particles and the forces they feel.
This led to the development of Pati–Salam
model in particle physics. In 1973, Salam
and Jogesh Pati were the first to notice that
since Quarks and Leptons have very similar
SU(2) × U(1) representation content, they
all may have similar entities. They provided
a simple realisation of the quark-lepton symmetry
by postulating that lepton number was a fourth
colour, dubbed "violet".Physicists had believed
that there were four fundamental forces of
nature: the gravitational force, the strong
and weak nuclear forces, and the electromagnetic
force. Salam had worked on the unification
of these forces from 1959 with Glashow and
Weinberg. While at Imperial College London,
Salam successfully showed that weak nuclear
forces are not really different from electromagnetic
forces, and two could inter-convert. Salam
provided a theory that shows the unification
of two fundamental forces of nature, weak
nuclear forces and the electromagnetic forces,
one into another. Glashow had also formulated
the same work, and the theory was combined
in 1966. In 1967, Salam proved the electroweak
unification theory mathematically, and finally
published the papers. For this achievement,
Salam, Glashow, and Weinberg were awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979. The Nobel
Prize Foundation paid tribute to the scientists
and issued a statement saying: "For their
contributions to the theory of the unified
weak and electromagnetic interaction between
elementary particles, including, inter alia,
the prediction of the weak neutral current".
In the 1970s Salam continued trying to unify
forces by including the strong interaction
in a grand unified theory.
== Government work ==
Abdus Salam returned to Pakistan in 1960 to
take charge of a government post that was
given to him by President Field Marshal Ayub
Khan. From her independence, Pakistan has
never had a coherent science policy, and the
total expenditure on research and development
represent ~1.0% of Pakistan's GDP. Even the
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) headquarters
was located in a small room, and less than
10 scientists were working on fundamental
concepts of physics. Abdus Salam replaced
Salimuzzaman Siddiqui as Science Advisor,
became first Member (technical) of Pakistan
Atomic Energy Commission. Abdus Salam expanded
the web of physics research and development
in Pakistan by sending more than 500 scientists
abroad. In September 1961, Abdus Salam approached
President Ayub Khan to set up the country's
first national space agency. On 16 September
1961, through an executive order, Space and
Upper Atmosphere Research Commission was established,
in which Abdus Salam served as the first director.
Before 1960, very little work on scientific
development was done, and scientific activities
in Pakistan were almost diminished. Abdus
Salam called Ishfaq Ahmad, a nuclear physicist,
who had left the country for Switzerland where
he joined CERN, to Pakistan. With the support
of Abdus Salam, PAEC established PAEC Lahore
Center-6, with Ishfaq Ahmad as its first director.
In 1967, Abdus Salam became a central and
administrative figure to lead the research
in both Theoretical and Particle physics.
With the establishment of Institute of Physics
at Quaid-e-Azam University, the research in
theoretical and particle physics was engaged.
Under Abdus Salam's direction, physicists
tackled the greatest outstanding problems
in physics and mathematics. Another physicist,
Raziuddin Siddiqui, established numerous physics
research groups and supervised research activities
in the academic institutions of Pakistan.
Under the direction of Abdus Salam, research
in physics reached a point that prompted worldwide
recognition of Pakistani physicists.
From the 1950s, Salam had tried establishing
high-powered research institutes in Pakistan,
though he was unable to do so. Salam moved
PAEC Headquarters to a bigger building, and
established research laboratories all over
the country. On the direction of Salam, Ishrat
Hussain Usmani set up plutonium and uranium
exploration committees throughout the country.
In October 1961, Salam travelled to the United
States and signed a space-co-operation agreement
between Pakistan and United States. In November
1961, NASA started to build a space facility
– Flight Test Range – in Balochistan where
Abdus Salam served as its first technical
director.
Abdus Salam played an influential and significant
role in Pakistan's development in nuclear
energy for peaceful purposes. In 1964, Abdus
Salam was made head of Pakistan's IAEA delegation
and represented Pakistan for a decade. The
same year, Abdus Salam joined Munir Ahmad
Khan – Abdus Salam's lifelong friend and
contemporary at Government College University.
Khan was the first person in the IAEA that
Abdus Salam had consulted about the establishment
of International Centre for Theoretical Physics,
a research physics institution, in Trieste,
Italy. With an agreement signed with IAEA,
the International Centre for Theoretical Physics
was set up with Abdus Salam as its first director.
At IAEA, Abdus Salam had advocated the importance
of nuclear power plants in his country. It
was due to his effort that in 1965, Canada
and Pakistan signed a nuclear energy co-operation
deal. Salam had obtained the permission from
Ayub Khan – against the wishes of Ayub Khan's
own government functionaries – to set up
the nuclear power plant near Karachi. In 1965,
with the efforts led by Abdus Salam, the United
States and Pakistan signed an agreement in
which the US provided Pakistan with a small
research reactor. Abdus Salam had a long dream
to establish a research institute in Pakistan,
for which he had advocated on many different
occasions. In 1965, Abdus Salam and Edward
Durrell Stone signed a contract for the establishment
of Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and
Technology at Nilore, Islamabad.
=== Space programme ===
Salam was the founder of Pakistan's space
programme as he was responsible for the establishment
of the space research activities in Pakistan.
In early 1961, Salam approached President
Ayub Khan to lay the foundation of country's
first executive agency to co-ordinate space
research. On 16 September 1961, through an
executive order, the Space and Upper Atmosphere
Research Commission (SUPARCO) was established
of which Salam was made its first and founder
director of the agency. Salam immediately
travelled to United States, where he successfully
signed a space co-operation agreement with
United States Government. In November 1961,
NASA built Flight Test Center (FTC) in Balochistan
Province. During this time, Salam visited
Air Force Academy where he met with Air Commodore
(Brigadier-General) Wladyslaw Turowicz – a
Polish military scientist and an aerospace
engineer. Turowicz was made the first technical
director of the space centre, and a programme
of rocket testing ensued. In 1964, while in
the United States, Salam visited the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, and met with nuclear
engineers Salim Mehmud and Tariq Mustafa.
Salam signed another agreement with National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
in which NASA launched a programme to provide
training to Pakistan's scientists and engineers.
Both nuclear engineers returned to Pakistan
in few months and were inducted in Suparco.
=== Nuclear weapons programme ===
Salam knew the importance of nuclear technology
in Pakistan, for civilian and peaceful purposes.
But, according to his biographers, Salam played
an ambiguous role in Pakistan's own integrated
atomic bomb project. As late as the 1960s,
Salam made an unsuccessful attempt for a proposal
for the establishment of nuclear fuel reprocessing
plant, but it was deferred the matter on economic
grounds by Ayub Khan. According to Rehman,
Salam's influence in nuclear development was
lessened and diminished as late as 1974, and
he became critical of Bhutto's control over
science. But Salam personally did not terminate
his connection with the scientists working
in the theoretical physics division at PAEC.
As early as 1972–73, he had been a great
advocate for the atomic bomb project, but
subsequently took a stance against it after
he fell out with Bhutto over the issue of
the Ahmaddiya denomination as non-Islamic.In
1965, Salam led the establishing of the nuclear
research institute—Pakistan Institute of
Nuclear Science and Technology. In 1965, the
plutonium reactor Pakistan Atomic Research
Reactor went critical under the leadership
of Salam. In 1973, Salam proposed the idea
of establishing an annual college to promote
scientific activities in the country to the
Chairman of PAEC, Munir Ahmad Khan, who wholeheartedly
accepted and fully supported this idea. This
led to the establishment of the International
Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary
Needs (INSC), where each year since 1976 scientists
from all over the world come to Pakistan to
interact with Pakistani scientists. The first
annual INSC conference was held on advanced
particle and nuclear physics.
In November 1971, Salam met with Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto in his residence, and following
Bhutto's advice, Salam went to United States
to avoid the 1971 Indo-Pak winter war. In
1971, Salam had travelled to the United States
and returned to Pakistan with scientific literature
about the Manhattan Project, and calculations
involving in atomic bombs. In 1972, the Government
of Pakistan learned about the development
status of the first atomic bomb completed
under the Indian nuclear programme. On 20
January 1972, at the Multan meeting, Bhutto
orchestrated to develop the deterrence programme.
Former prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,
formed a group of scientists and engineers,
which was first headed by Salam. In 1972,
Salam, as Science Advisor to the President,
had managed and participated in a secret meeting
of nuclear scientists with Bhutto in Multan,
which came to be known as the "Multan Meeting".
At this meeting, only I.H. Usmani protested,
believing that the country had neither facilities
nor talent to carry out such an ambitious
and technologically remanding project at that
time, whilst Salam remained quiet. Here, Bhutto
entrusted Salam and appointed Munir Ahmad
Khan as Chairman of the PAEC and head of the
atomic bomb program, as Salam had supported
Khan. Few months after the meeting, Salam,
along with Khan and Riazuddin, met with Bhutto
in his residence where the scientists briefed
Bhutto about the nuclear weapons program.
After the meeting, Salam established the "Theoretical
Physics Group (TPG)" in PAEC. Abdus had led
groundbreaking work at the TPG and was initially
headed by Salam until 1974.An office was set
up for Salam in the Prime ministers' Secretariat
by order of Bhutto. Salam immediately started
to motivate and invite scientists to begin
work with PAEC in the development of fission
weapons. In December 1972, two theoretical
physicists working at the International Centre
for Theoretical Physics were asked by Salam
to report to Munir Ahmad Khan, the scientific
director of the program. This marked the beginning
of the "Theoretical Physics Group (TPG)",
reporting directly to Salam. The TPG, in PAEC,
was assigned to conduct research in fast neutron
calculations, hydrodynamics (how the explosion
produced by a chain reaction might behave),
problems of neutron diffusion, and the development
of theoretical designs of Pakistan's nuclear
weapon devices. Later, the Theoretical Physics
Group working under the leadership of Riazuddin,
who was also Salam's student, began to directly
report to Salam, and the work on the theoretical
design of the nuclear weapon device was completed
in 1977. Hence, Salam had led the groundbreaking
work in the development of the weapons programme,
with Khan. In 1972, Salam had formed the Mathematical
Physics Group, under Raziuddin Siddiqui, that
was charged, with the Theoretical Physics
Group, with carrying out research in the theory
of simultaneity during the detonation process,
and the mathematics involved in the theory
of nuclear fission Following India's surprise
nuclear test —Pokhran-I – in 1974, Munir
Ahmad Khan had called for a meeting to initiate
work on atomic bomb, which was attended by
Salam and at which Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi
was appointed head of the Directorate of Technical
Development in PAEC.The DTD was set up to
co-ordinate the work of the various specialised
groups of scientists and engineers working
on different aspects of the atomic bomb. The
word "bomb" was never used in this meeting,
but the participants fully understood what
was being discussed. On March 1974, Salam
and Khan also established the Wah Group Scientist
that was charged with manufacturing materials,
explosive lenses and triggering mechanism
development of the weapon. Following the setting
up of DTD, Salam, along with Riazuddin and
Munir Ahmad Khan, visited the Pakistan Ordnance
Factories (POF) where they held talks with
senior military engineers led by POF chairman
Lieutenant-General Qamar Ali Mirza. It was
there that the Corps of Engineers built the
Metallurgical Laboratory in Wah Cantt in 1976.
Thus, the Wah Group working under the DTD
was charged with the material and triggering
mechanism development of the weapon. Salam
remained associated with the nuclear weapons
programme until the mid-1974, when he left
the country after Ahmadi were declared non-Muslims
by the Pakistani Parliament. His own relations
with Prime minister Bhutto fell out and turned
into open hostility after the Ahmadiyya Community
was declared as not-Islamic; he lodged a public
and powerful protest against Bhutto regarding
this issue and gave great criticism to Bhutto
over his control over science. In spite of
this, Salam maintained close relations with
the theoretical physics division at PAEC who
kept him informed about every status of the
calculations needed to calculate the performance
of the atomic bomb, according to Norman Dombey.
After seeing Indian aggression in Northern
Pakistan, followed by massive troops rotation
in Southern Pakistan, Salam again renewed
his ties with the senior scientists working
in the atomic bomb projects, including Ishfaq
Ahmad and others, who had kept him informed
about the scientific development of the program.
In the 1980s, Salam personally approved many
appointments and a large influx of Pakistani
scientists to the associateship program at
ICTP and CERN, and engaged in research in
theoretical physics with his students at the
ICTP.In 2008, Indian scholar Ravi Singh noted
in his book that "in 1978, Abdus Salam with
PAEC officials, paid a secret visit to China,
and was instrumental in initiating industrial
nuclear cooperation between the two countries."
Although he had left the country, Salam did
not hesitate to advise the PAEC and Theoretical
and Mathematical Physics Group on important
scientific matters, and kept his close association
with TPG and PAEC.
== Advocacy for science ==
In 1964, Salam founded the International Centre
for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, in
the North-East of Italy and served as its
director until 1993. In 1974, he founded International
Nathiagali Summer College (INSC) to promote
science in his country. The INSC is an annual
meeting of scientists from all over the world
to come to Pakistan and hold discussions on
different aspects of physics and science.
Even today, the INSC holds annual meetings,
and Salam's pupil student Riazuddin is its
director since its inception.In 1997, the
scientists at ICTP commemorated Salam and
renamed ICTP as "Abdus Salam International
Centre for Theoretical Physics". Salam had
advocated for development of Science in third
world countries, and attended various seminars
in different countries. Throughout the years,
Salam served on a number of United Nations
committees concerning science and technology
in developing countries. 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.During
his visit at the Institute of Physics of Quaid-i-Azam
University in 1979, Salam had explained after
receiving his award: Physicists believed there
are four fundamental forces of nature; the
gravitational force, the weak and strong nuclear
force, and the electromagnetic force. Salam
was a firm believer that "scientific thought
is the common heritage of mankind", and that
developing nations needed to help themselves
and invest in 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.In 1981, Salam became
a founding member of the World Cultural Council.Although
Salam had departed from Pakistan, he did not
terminate his connection to Pakistan. Salam
continued inviting Pakistan's scientists to
ICTP, and maintained a research programme
for the Pakistani scientists. Many prominent
scientists, including Ghulam Murtaza, Riazuddin,
Kamaluddin Ahmed, Faheem Hussain, Raziuddin
Siddiqui, Munir Ahmad Khan, Ishfaq Ahmad,
and I. H. Usmani, considered him as their
mentor and a teacher.
== Personal life ==
Salam was a very private individual, who kept
his public and personal lives quite separate.
He married twice; first time to a cousin,
the second time in accordance with Islamic
law, and at his death, was survived by three
daughters and a son by his first wife, and
a son and daughter by his second, Professor
Dame Louise Johnson, formerly Professor of
Molecular biophysics in Oxford University.
Two of his daughters are; Anisa Bushra Salam
Bajwa and Aziza Rahman.
=== Religion ===
Abdus Salam was an Ahmadi Muslim, who saw
his religion as a fundamental part of his
scientific work. He once wrote that "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 verses from
the Quran and stated:
"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." [67:3–4]
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.
In 1974, the Pakistan parliament made a constitutional
amendment that declared Ahmadi as non-Muslims.
In protest, Salam left Pakistan for London.
After his departure, Salam did not completely
terminate his connection to Pakistan, and
kept his close association with the Theoretical
Physics Group as well as academic scientists
from Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).
At ICTP, Salam had launched series of post-research
programmes for Pakistani academics with whom
he had developed extremely close relations.
In 1983, Riazuddin and Asghar Qadir returned
to ICTP where they had joined Salam, and stayed
with him until 1990.
=== Death ===
Abdus Salam died peacefully on 21 November
1996 at the age of 70 in Oxford, England,
from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).
His body was returned to Pakistan and kept
in Darul Ziafat, where some 13,000 men and
women visited to pay their last respects.
Approximately 30,000 people attended his funeral
prayers.
Salam was buried in Bahishti Maqbara, a cemetery
established by the Ahmadiyya Community at
Rabwah, Punjab, Pakistan, next to his parents'
graves. The epitaph on his tomb initially
read "First Muslim Nobel Laureate". The Pakistani
government removed "Muslim" and left only
his name on the headstone. The word "Muslim"
was initially obscured on the orders of a
local magistrate before moving to the national
level. Under Ordinance XX, being an Ahmadi,
he was considered a non-Muslim according to
the definition provided in the II Amendment
to the Constitution of Pakistan.
=== Legacy ===
Salam's work in Pakistan has been far reaching
and regarded as highly influential. Salam
is remembered as his peers and students as
the "father of Pakistan's school of Theoretical
Physics" as well as Pakistan's science. Abdus
Salam was a charismatic and an iconic figure,
as much as a symbol among them of what they
were working or/ researching toward in their
respected field. His students, fellow scientists
and engineers, remembered him as brilliant
teacher, and engaging researcher who would
also influence among others to do the same.
Salam founded the Space Research Commission
of which he served its first founding director
in the 1980s. In 1998, the Government of Pakistan
issued a commemorative stamp to honour the
services of Salam as part of its "Scientists
of Pakistan" series. His alma mater, Government
College Lahore, now a university, has Abdus
Salam Chair in Physics and Abdus Salam School
of Mathematical Sciences named after him.
The Abdus Salam Chair was also established
in his honour at the Syed Babar Ali School
of Science and Engineering in Lahore University
of Management Sciences. Despite the immense
services he had done for Pakistan and the
Government, he has been discriminated against
because of his affiliation with the Ahmadiyya
sect, which the Pakistan Government has denounced.
He has also made a significant contribution
towards the recent success of search for the
Higgs boson.However, 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 and student
of Salam, wrote:
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".
Ishfaq Ahmad, former chairman of the PAEC
and a lifelong friend of Salam recalls:
Dr Salam was responsible for sending about
500 physicists, mathematicians and scientists
from Pakistan, for PhD's to the best institutions
in UK and USA.
In August 1996, the former chairman of PAEC
and lifelong friend, Munir Ahmad Khan met
Salam in Oxford. Munir Ahmad Khan, who headed
the nuclear weapons and energy programme,
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.
== Documentaries on Abdus Salam ==
Salam – the filmLLC started formally researching
and developing a film on the science and life
of Abdus Salam in 2004, two years after the
producers had conceived of the idea. A fundraising
teaser was released by Kailoola Productions
to coincide with Salam's birth anniversary
on 29 January 2017. The post-production phase
of this documentary film, pending funding,
is estimated at US$150,000. The film Salam:
The First ****** Nobel Laureate directed by
Anand Kamalakar appeared in 2018.
Abdus Salam
The Dream of SymmetryPilgrim Films released
"The Dream of Symmetry" in September 2011.
Their press release describes it as presenting
"the extraordinary figure of Abdus Salam,
who not only was an outstanding scientist
but also a generous humanitarian and a valuable
person. His rich and busy life was an endless
quest for symmetry, that he pursued in the
universe of physical laws and in the world
of human beings."
== 
Honours ==
Dr. Salam's genius was like a magic... And
there was always an element of eastern mysticism
in his ideas that left one wondering how to
fathom his genius...
In 1997, scientists at ICTP renamed the institute
as The Abdus Salam International Centre for
Theoretical Physics in the honour of Salam.
Salam's services have been recognised in Pakistan,
as his students have openly spoken and stressed
the importance of Science and Technology in
Pakistan. In 1999, per the recommendation
of Ishfaq Ahmad, the Federal Government led
the establishment of Salam Chair in Physics
at the Government College University. On 22
November 2009, the Director of Abdus Salam
International Centre for Theoretical Physics
had gifted the original Nobel Prize Certificate
to his alma mater. In 2011, GCU's Salam Chair
in Physics held a one-day-long conference
that was attributed to Nobel laureate Abdus
Salam. Salam's students Ghulam Murtaza, Perviaz
Hoodbhoy, Riazuddin and Tariq Zaidi discussed
the life and works of the Nobel laureate,
and brought to light the achievement of Salam
in Pakistan and in the Physics. While covering
the media converge on Salam's tribute, the
News International, called Salam as the "great
Pakistan scientist".In 1998, the Edward A.
Bouchet-ICTP Institute was renamed as Edward
Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute. In 2003, Government
of Punjab created the institute of excellence
for the Mathematical Sciences, Abdus Salam
School of Mathematical Sciences, in Salam's
Alma mater – Government College University.
That it has taken nearly four decades for
this country to honour a globally renowned
scientist who was one of its own, is a sad
reflection of the priorities that hold sway
here... For Dr Salam was an Ahmadi, a persecuted
minority in Pakistan, and his faith rather
than his towering achievements was the yardstick
by which he was judged.
In 2008, in an opinion, Daily Times called
Salam "one of the greatest scientist Pakistan
has ever produced".In 2015, the Academy of
Young Researchers and Scholars, Lahore, renamed
its library to "Abdus Salam Library". In the
town of Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, near the
headquarters of the Canadian branch of the
Ahmadiyya Community, of which Professor Abdus
Salam was a member, the community has named
a street after his name. It is called Abdus
Salam Street. Additionally, there are two
annual Abdus Salam science fairs, one held
in Canada and the other in the US. Each is
organised as a National event for young scientists
from the Ahmadiyya Community in an effort
to motivate youth toward scientific endeavour.On
December 6, 2016, Pakistan's Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif approved the renaming of Quaid-i-Azam
University's (QAU) physics centre to the Professor
Abdus Salam Center for Physics. It was also
announced that Professor Abdus Salam Fellowship
will be established, which will include five
annual fully funded Pakistani PhD students
in the field of Physics in "leading international
universities".
=== Awards ===
In 1979, Salam was awarded the 1979 Nobel
Prize in Physics, along with Glashow and Weinberg,
For their contributions to the theory of the
unified weak and electromagnetic interaction
between elementary particles, including, inter
alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current.
Salam received high civil and science awards
from all over the world. Salam is recipient
of first high civil awards – Star of Pakistan
(1959) and the Nishan-e-Imtiaz (1979) – awarded
both by President of Pakistan for his outstanding
services to Pakistan. The National Center
for Physics (NCP) contains a Abdus Salam Museum
dedicated to the life of Salam and his work
as he discovered and formulated the Electroweak
Theory. Below is the list of awards that were
conferred to Salam in his lifetime.
=== Awards named after Salam ===
The Abdus Salam Award (also called as Salam
Prize) is an award in natural and physical
sciences, established to recognised the high
achievements and contributions in physical
and natural sciences. In 1979, Riazuddin,
Fayyazuddin and Asghar Qadir met with Salam,
and presented the idea of creating an award
to appreciate scientists, resident in Pakistan,
in their respective fields. Salam had donated
the money he had won as he felt that he had
no rightly use of the prize money. It was
endowed by Asghar Qadir, Riazuddin and Fayyazuddin
in 1980, and it was first awarded in 1981.
The winners are selected by a committee (consisted
of Aghar Qadir, Fayyazuddin, Riazuddin, and
others) of the Center for Advanced Mathematics
and Physics (CAMP), which administers the
award. The Abdus Salam Medal is presented
by the Third World Academy of Sciences in
Trieste, Italy. First given in 1995, the award
is presented to the people who have served
the cause of science in the Developing World.
The Abdus Salam Shield of Honor in Mathematics
was initiated by the National Mathematical
Society of Pakistan to promote and recognize
quality research in Mathematics at 2015. It
is awarded for the first time in 2016.
=== Contributions ===
Salam's primary focus was research on the
physics of elementary particles. His particular
numerous groundbreaking 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;
renormalisation 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;
== Institutes named after Abdus Salam ==
Abdus Salam Centre for Physics (Department
of Physics), Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad,
Pakistan
Abdus Salam National Centre for Mathematics
(ASNCM), Government College University, Lahore,
Pakistan.
Abdus Salam Chair in Physics (ASCP), Government
College University, Lahore, Pakistan.
Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical
Physics, Trieste, Italy.
Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences,
Lahore, Pakistan
The Edward Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute (EBASI)
== See also ==
== References ==
== Sources ==
== External links ==
Documentary Film on the Science and Life of
Dr. Abdus Salam
An Interview – Part 1 of 4 on YouTube
An Interview – Part 2 of 4 on YouTube
An interview – Part 3 of 4 on YouTube
An Interview – Part 4 of 4 on YouTube
Interview with Abdus Salam, 1986 (Television
production). War and Peace in the Nuclear
Age. "Carter's New World". Boston, MA: WGBH
Media Library & Archives. 15 December 1986.
Retrieved 11 June 2016.
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical
Physics
Abdus Salam bio on Nobel site
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1979 [4]
Abdus Salam CV [5] / [6]
Islam and Science: Concordance or Conflict?,
speech delivered to UNESCO, 27 April 1984.
COMSATS Secretariat
Biography of Abdus Salam by Imperial College
colleague [7]
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
Salam +50 Conference at Imperial College
Contributions of Professor Abdus Salam as
member of PAEC
Abdus Salam Movie – The Dream of Symmetry
on YouTube
Pakistan shuns physicist linked to 'God particle'
(Associated Press, 9 July 2012)
