Abdus Salam
Abdus Salam (January 29, 1926 - November 21, 1996) was the Nobel Laureate in Physics in 1979, for his work in electroweak theory which is the mathematical and conceptual synthesis of the electromagnetic and weak interactions - the latest stage reached until now on the path towards the unification of the fundamental forces of nature. The validity of the theory was ascertained in the following years through experiments carried out at the Super Proton Synchrotron facility at CERN in Geneva which led to the discovery of the W and Z bosons.
Director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, from 1964 to December 1993, Salam died in Oxford in 1996, after a long illness. He was buried in Pakistan where he was born.
Despite the fact that he belonged to the Qadiani sect - considered to be heretic by many Muslims - Pakistanis are proud of their country's Nobel Laureate, some religious zealots notwithstanding.
In the early 1970s, Abdus Salam played a role in getting Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons program started.
