Mohammad Abdus SalamNI, SPk, KBE (Punjabi, Urdu: محمد عبد السلام‎; pronounced [əbd̪ʊs səlɑm]; 29 January 1926 – 21 November 1996), was a Pakistani theoretical physicist. Salam, a major figure in 20th century theoretical physics, shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for his contribution to the landmark electroweak unification. He was the first (and until Malala Yousufzai the only) Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize in science and the second of an Islamic country after Muslim Nobel Laureate (after Anwar Sadat of Egypt) .

Salam was a top level science advisor to the Government of Pakistan from 1960 to 1974, a position from which he played a major and influential role in the development of the country's science infrastructure. Salam was responsible not only for contributing to major developments in theoretical and particle physics, but also for promoting the broadening and deepening of high calibre scientific research in his country. 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 an integral 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 Pakistan Parliament passed a controversial parliamentary bill declaring the Ahmadiyya Community as not-Islamic. 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.

Abdus Salam (Arabic: عبد السلام‎) is a male Muslim honorific or given name, built on the Arabic words Abd, al- and Salam. The name means "servant of the All-peaceable", as-Salam being one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which give rise to the Muslim theophoric names.

Because the letter s is a sun letter, the letter l of the al- is assimilated to it. Thus although the name is written with letters corresponding to Abd al-Salam, the usual pronunciation corresponds to Abd as-Salam. Alternative transliterations include Abdul Salam, Abdul Salaam, Abdus Salam and others, all subject to variant spacing and hyphenation. It may refer to

People

Abdus Salam (27 November 1925 — 7 April 1952) was a demonstrator who died during the Bengali Language Movement demonstrations which took place in the erstwhile East Bengal (currently Bangladesh), Pakistan in 1952.

Background

Salam was born in Luxmipur village of Feni District. He was the son of Mohd Fajil Miah. He was serving as a peon in the Department of Industries of the government. His residence was at a living quarter of Nilkhet Barrack in Dhaka numbered as 36B.

Events

On February 21, 1952 the students denied Section 144 and broke out in an agitation at Dhaka Medical College to make Bangla one of the state language of Pakistan, Salam took part in that procession and was shot by the police. He was then taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and were treated over a month there. But he failed to recover and died on April 7, 1952.

Legacy

Salam was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2000.

References

Further reading