DR.

ABDUS SALAM
Report on his leadership and life

“Alfred Nobel stipulated that no distinction of race or colour will determine who received of
his generosity.” (SALAM’S)
 CHAPTER # 01
EARLY LIFE OF ABDUS SALAM
BIRTH PLACE:
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.

SCHOOL LIFETIME:
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.

COLLAGE AND UNIVERSITY ERA:

He Went 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
(honors) 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.

WENT ABOARD FOR HIGHER STUDIES:

Abdus 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
“Associate ships” 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.

SERVICES IN UNITED KINDOM:

In 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.
POLITICAL CAREER: The consolidation of Salam’s scientific career and his political
activities occurred simultaneously. These seemingly disparate activities were actually two
increasingly complementary aspects of Salam’s life. As he became part of the international
scientific community, his political career encompassed appointments in both international
organizations and in Pakistan.
In 1955 and 1958, he was appointed secretary at the Geneva Conference for the Peaceful Uses
of Atomic Energy. There he met Swedish physicist Sigvard Eklund. This was the beginning of a
long involvement with United Nation politics. Retrospectively, he recalled his first visit to
the New York headquarters as “falling in love with all the organization represented the Family of
Man, in all its hues, its diversity, brought together for Peace and Betterment”.Salam and Eklund
developed a close relationship marked by mutual respect and a common interest in the promotion
of science in developing countries. In 1961 Eklund was elected the second director general of
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an event that was certainly crucial for Salam’s
career as a scientific diplomat. Between 1964 and 1975, Salam was a member of the United
Nations Advisory Committee of Science and Technology and, from 1970 to 1973, he served as a
member of the United Nations Panel and Foundation Committee for the United Nations
University.

However, it was Pakistan where Salam spread his wings as a science politician. Tensions
between the eastern and western parts of the country in 1958 led to the framing of former martial
law by chief Ayub Khan, who stopped anti-Ahmadiyya rebellions. His regime lasted eleven
years and marked the beginning of a technocratic era in which the promotion of science was part
of the discourse surrounding the ideology and practice of Pakistan's economic and cultural
development. Salam's scientific reputation in the West, youth, humble origins and determined
but charismatic personality made him an ideal symbol of modern Pakistan's scientific spirit. In
1961, Salam became the chief scientific adviser to the president and remained in that position
until 1974, when he resigned due to anti-Ahmadiyya laws enacted by the Pakistani government.
In collaboration with fellow Cambridge physicist Ishrat H. Usmani, Salam supported the
establishment of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) near
Karachi, the establishment of the Pakistan Nuclear Research Institute (Pinstech), and the
consolidation of Pakistan Atomic Energy. Energy Commission. After 1958, he also became a
member of the following organizations in Pakistan: the Scientific Commission (1959), the
National Science Council (1963–1975), and the Pakistan Scientific Foundation Council (1973–
1977). He was a consultant to the Education Commission (1959) and chairman of the Pakistan
Space and Upper Atmosphere Committee (1961-1964). In 1962, Salam became a member of the
IAEA as a member of the Pakistani delegation.
SALAM’S VIEWS ON SCIENCE AND THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT:

As a scientist, Salam carried great weight with politicians in Pakistan. As a Muslim born in poor
Pakistan, he seemed to be naturally invested with the authority to speak on behalf of the Third
World. Indeed, Salam was a “scientific diplomat,” a representative of different communities
acting in different social and political settings. After the creation of the ICTP, and especially
after being awarded the Nobel Prize, he became one of the most influential participants in the
science-for-development discourse. His collected works on science and development, Ideals and
Realities, became a reference text for Third World politicians of science in the second half of the
twentieth century.

CHAPTER # 02

SALAM’S QUALITIES

TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE:
Dr. Abdus Salam contributions were research on the physics of elementary particles. His most
famous contributions included: Two-component neutrino theory and the prediction of the
inevitable parity violation in weak interaction, gauge unification of weak and electromagnetic
interaction. This unified force is known as the “Electroweak” force, a name given to it by Salam,
and which lays the foundation of the Standard Model in particle physics and predicted existence
of weak neutral currents and W particles and Z particles before their experimental discovery,
symmetry properties of elementary particles; unitary symmetry, renormalization of meson
theories, gravity theory and its role in particle physics; two tensor theory of gravity and strong
interaction physics, unification of electroweak with strong nuclear forces, grand unification
theory; related prediction of proton-decay.

His contribution is tremendous and during his life span he was willing to transferred all his
knowledge to the governmental institution of Pakistan.

Every knowledge and every research is valuable; we do not know how to measure the
contribution of scientist theory but his contribution along with two other scientists about
Electroweak is very valuable to Electromagnetic Field.
 HIS MAJORS FAULTS/ MISTAKES

LEGACY NOT TRANSFERRED:

Salam's work in Pakistan has been far reaching and regarded as greatly powerful. He is
remembered by his peers and students as the "father of Pakistan's school of Theoretical Physics"
as well as Pakistan's science. Salam was a charismatic and iconic figure, a symbol among them
of what they were working or researching toward in their fields His students, fellow scientists
and engineers, remembered him as brilliant teacher, and engaging researcher who would also
influence others to do the same but his skills and knowledge were not transferred by the long
period of time because he died at 1996 at aboard. It was the major sad back for the Pakistan.

SALAM’S QUALITIES THAT IMPRESSED US AS A NATION

Till his death, Abdus Salam was a researcher in theoretical elementary particle physics, either
pioneering or associating with all important developments in the field -- maintaining a constant
flow of ideas and focusing on developing countries.
FOUNDATION OF ICTP FOR FORIENERS:
Mohammad Abdus succeeded in establishing the International Centre for Theoretical
Physics (ICTP) in Italy which works for the young students who are seeking to get in touch with
modern science.