© Imperial College LondonPage 1 Abdus Salam at Imperial College Michael Duff January 2016 IAS/NTU Singapore

© Imperial College LondonPage 2 The Early Years Born, Jhang 1926: ``I am a humble man’’ Attended Government College, Lahore and Punjab University Left for Cambridge 1946, PhD 1952 Fellow of St. John’s College, (Much influenced by Dirac) Returned to Lahore Appointed Lecturer at Cambridge, 1954

© Imperial College LondonPage 3 Early Achievements 1951 :Renormalization of meson theories 1954: Overlapping divergences with Kemmer and Matthews. 1956: Two component neutrino theory: ``All neutrinos are left-handed’’. Predated the Wu experiment. Verdict of Wolfgang Pauli: ``Give my regards to my friend Salam and tell him to work on something better’’

© Imperial College LondonPage 4 Imperial College P.M.S. Blackett, at the suggestion of Hans Bethe, urges Salam to move to Imperial Professor of Mathematics and then Theoretical Physics, 1st January 1957 Founded Theoretical Physics Group Elected Fellow of the Royal Society 1959 (at age 33)

© Imperial College LondonPage 5 Imperial College Physics Matthews, Blackman, McGee, Mason Salam, Butler, Blackett, Wright,Elliot

© Imperial College LondonPage 6

© Imperial College LondonPage 7 Ayub Khan on Salam,1959 ``His attainments in the field of science at such a young age are a source of pride and inspiration for us and I am sure his association with the Scientific Commission will help to impart weight and prestige to the recommendations.’’ (Father was proud!),

© Imperial College LondonPage 8 (Just a few of his) Prizes Atoms for Peace Prize 1968 Einstein Medal 1979 Nobel Prize for Physics 1979 Knighthood for services to British science 1989 Over 40 honorary degrees

© Imperial College LondonPage 9 Theoretical Physics Group

© Imperial College LondonPage 10 Prince Philip on Salam ``The main thing about Salam is that, despite his not working in Pakistan, he continues to be available to Commonwealth and world science wherever he works in the free world.’’ Address to the Pakistan Association for the Advancement of Science, 1958.

© Imperial College LondonPage 11 Salam’s activities at Imperial College Spontaneous symmetry breaking with Goldstone and Weinberg Unitary symmetries with Matthews Weak interactions with Ward Electro-weak unification Quantum gravity with Delbourgo, Isham and Strathdee Symmetry breaking with Kibble Grand unification with Pati Supersymmetry and superspace with Strathdee

© Imperial College LondonPage 12 My personal involvement with Salam PhD student at Imperial ( a mixed blessing!) Thesis title: ``Problems in the classical and quantum theories of gravitation’’ (Salam bet with Bondi) First postdoc at ICTP Trieste Faculty colleague at Imperial College Two kinds of genius? Salam was a ``magician’’ Abdus Salam Chair of Theoretical Physics, Imperial College,

© Imperial College LondonPage 13 Salam: a cultural amphibian A man of two worlds: ``Salam has the heart of a poet and the mind of a scientist. He is an excellent physicist concerned with deep patterns; he is also a deeply compassionate man. These two threads intertwined throughout his life’’ Robert Walgate, New Scientist, 1976

© Imperial College LondonPage 14 Science in the Third World Third world countries must become arbiters of their own scientific and technological destinies Training of a scientific elite is essential Founded ICTP Trieste, 1964 Chief Scientific Advisor to the President of Pakistan President, Third World Academy of Sciences, Visionary book ``Ideals and Realities’’, 1987

© Imperial College LondonPage 15 Spring school on Supergravity and Supersymmetry, Trieste 1984

© Imperial College LondonPage 16 The Nobel Ceremony 1979

© Imperial College LondonPage 17 Salam +50 meeting Imperial College July 2007 Proceedings published by Imperial College Press 2008

© Imperial College LondonPage 18 Dr Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan High Commissioner, UK

© Imperial College LondonPage 19 Umar Salam and Nobel Laureate Gerard t’Hooft

© Imperial College LondonPage 20 The Salam grandchildren

© Imperial College LondonPage 21 Lasting memories: Tremendous sense of humor Courtesy and respect, even to those with ``crazy’’ ideas! For example, the Israeli military attache His own crazy ideas (eg black holes and Regge slopes 1969) Sound advice to youngsters

© Imperial College LondonPage 22 ``When all else fails, you can always tell the truth’’

Slap on the back © Imperial College LondonPage 23

© Imperial College LondonPage 24 Bibliography M.J. Duff, ``A tribute to Abdus Salam'' Workshop on Frontiers in Field Theory, Quantum Gravity and String Theory, Puri, India, Dec Abdus Salam,``Ideals and realities'' Selected Essays of Abdus Salam, Ed C. H. Lai, World Scientific, T. W. B. Kibble,``Recollections of Abdus Salam at Imperial College '’ Abdus Salam Memorial Meeting, Trieste, Italy, Nov Jagjit Singh,``Abdus Salam: A biography'', Penguin, Michael Duff, ``Salam+50,’’ Imperial College Press, 2008 Gordon Fraser, ``Cosmic Anger’’, O. U. P, 2008