Salam had faith and confidence in what he believed in, along with the strength and courage to live with these dimensions successfully. He was a proud man.
Source/Credit: The News | Pakistan
By Syeda Sultana Rizvi | January 29, 2013
Today is the birthday of a man to whom the world is hugely indebted for his contribution to science and for establishing leading institutions for scientific development. He also negotiated agreements on behalf of Pakistan and other third world countries to develop institutions that continue to benefit thousands today.
Counted among the world’s most influential physicists, Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate Prof Abdus Salam contributed to making a better world.
Prof Salam’s name is in the spotlight once again since the discovery of a subatomic particle known as Higgs boson in July last. This discovery, the biggest in the world of physics in the last 30 years, vindicates Salam’s major theories and predictions. His work provided a crucial link between the pioneering work of Peter Higgs and physical proof of the particle.
Abdus Salam loved his motherland. In the capacity of scientific adviser to the government of Pakistan between 1960 and 1974, Salam played an influential role in Pakistan’s science infrastructure and became the guiding spirit and founder of Pakistan’s nuclear programme as well as the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco).
He concentrated on harnessing human resources in Pakistan and helped more than 500 Pakistani physicists and mathematicians study and research in British and American universities on scholarships.
In 1958 he established the vibrant Theoretical Physics Group at Imperial College, London. During the 1960s Salam helped many Pakistanis study at Imperial College and involved many of them in founding a Theoretical Physics Group at the newly established Quaid-e-Azam University (then Islamabad University) in the late 1960s.
Prof Salam made it possible for Pakistan to be represented at international conferences and in 1974 he founded the International Nathiagali Summer College (INSC), an annual meeting event of scientists from all over the world held in Pakistan. The INSC continues to hold annual meetings regularly.
His passion for helping third world countries, combined with his search for symmetry and his compassionate nature, drove him to establish the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in 1964 for scientists from third world countries. Salam was its director from 1964 to 1993. The centre is credited with training over 100,000 scientists. In recognition of his services, it has been named the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics.
About Prof Salam’s work, Gordon Fraser in his book Cosmic Anger writes, “He was not just an envoy simply relying on his government’s wishes. He was also his own ambassador”.
ICTP has been ensuring that scientists from the developing world have access to the same resources and opportunities enjoyed by their counterparts in wealthier parts of the world.
Dr Robert Walgate, writing for The New Scientist in 1976, described Salam as “a passionate advocate for the third world who has the heart of a poet and the mind of a scientist. Who shared his enormous intellectual energy between the pursuit of quarks and a passionate advocacy of third world needs.”
The Theoretical Physics Group at the Imperial College is still considered one of the leading groups on theoretical physics and maintains its position at the forefront of a number of different areas of theoretical physics. Salam’s especial significance has been recognised there with the creation of an Abdus Salam Professorship.
Prof Salam used his diplomatic skills not only to forge support for Pakistan and build institutions across the world, but also to reconcile the traditional conflict between religion and science.
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.”
Salam had faith and confidence in what he believed in, along with the strength and courage to live with these dimensions successfully. He was a proud man.
While receiving the Nobel Prize, he wore the Pakistani dress, spoke in his mother tongue and quoting verses from the Holy Quran he highlighted what he described as the ‘faith of the scientists’ in these words: “The deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement for our gaze”.
The writer is an information group officer and former press counsellor at the Pakistan High Commission, London.
Read original post here: The passion of a scientist
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