International Journal of Modern Physics A

Abdus Salam was a great man in more than one dimension. The conception and building of the ICTP system required much more than the intelligence of a great scientist. I will stress those other facets that made him such a unique personality: the optimism that coloured his views about men and women, his love for his people and his commitment to the less favoured peoples of the world and a crucial ingredient, his deep and complex sense of ethical values that pushed him towards engagement in the political reality. Endowed with a formidable power of persuasion and a healthy lack of respect for norms or rules that are not based on justice he made a big difference on many of us and will remain as an icon for future generations. I will also describe the final touches that Salam’s collaborators and successors had to add to keep his heritage flourishing.

For more than 50 years, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics has fostered the growth and sustainability of physics and mathematics in the developing world, benefitting hundreds of thousands of scientists. What began as a dream by its founder, Pakistani Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, has become a first-rate international research hub connecting scientists from all corners of the globe. As the social and economic situations in many developing countries has shifted, ICTP has responded with the creation of relevant research and training programmes that continue to boost science in disadvantaged parts of the world. Today, ICTP remains a beacon of hope for scientists who aspire to greatness.

Having significantly interacted over 17 years with Abdus Salam, as an undergraduate, postgraduate, postdoc, and eventually as an academic colleague, I will try to paint a personal picture of Salam which may convey something about the man, his greatness and his humanity.

Abdus Salam was a multi-dimensional man who straddled research and institution-building with enviable flair; he was both religious and iconoclastic, a true citizen of the world yet deeply nationalistic, a scientist and a lover of literature, a villager and a cosmopolitan. While the specific details of his life belong to the man alone, Salam’s rich experiences exemplify certain values, attitudes and lessons that are universal.

In this talk, we attempt to draw out those truths, by looking through the lens of physics. Our analysis of Salam’s personal journey mirrors the search for the invariants of a physical system in that we look beyond the particularities of his unique set of circumstances, to the essence that both categorizes, and transcends, explicit events.

Thus we move through Salam’s life, collecting ’invariants’ that apply as much to us today as they did to him several decades ago. Together, these constitute an enduring wisdom that can prove invaluable to young scientists — especially those from developing countries — as they navigate different cultures, manage diverse loyalties, and balance the lure of research with the demands of service.