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
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/ Nobel Lectures/The Nobel Prizes. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate.
Abdus Salam died on November 21, 1996.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1979
Abdus Salam
