Political Parties never let us forget political leaders of the past like the Bhuttos or military dictators such as Zia-ul-Haq and Ayub Khan. The country is filled with memorials of Nishan-e-Haider recipients and state textbooks give detailed biographies of them. As for the founders of the country, all their birth and death anniversaries are commemorated via national holidays and they are remembered every year by the nation on Independence Day. We are even constantly reminded of the death anniversaries of famous Pakistani actors and actresses on television channels.

In this milieu one of the most underrepresented category of people from history, the unsung heroes of Pakistan are the scientists. Why not remember some of Pakistan’s heroic scientists today?

[quote]Siddiqui studied mathematics and quantum mechanics under Albert Einstein[/quote]

Raziuddin Siddiqui (January 8, 1908 – January 8, 1998)

Dr. Raziuddin Siddiqui made contributions to both Pakistan’s education system and Pakistan’s nuclear programme. He got his M.A in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge in 1928 and later his Ph. D from the University of Leipzig in Germany, where he studied mathematics and quantum mechanics under Albert Einstein (yes, the Albert Einstein!). His doctoral advisor was the legendary physicist and Nobel-laureate Werner Heisenberg (of the ‘Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle’ fame). During the early 1940s, Siddiqui closely collaborated with Britain’s atomic weapons program, and participated in the secret Tube Alloys nuclear weapons development project. In the UK he gained expertise in the fields of Quantum mechanics and Supersymmetric quantum mechanics and published scientific papers at the Cavendish Laboratory. He later made further advanced contributions in Nuclear and Theoretical physics; and enjoyed a distinguished career in Cambridge, Great Britain. During this time, Siddiqui was responsible for supervising High-energy physics experiments at the Cavendish Laboratory, and was named as one of the senior scientists at Cavendish.

it is said that Allama Iqbal requested him to write a book on the Theory of relativity in Urdu but the poet died before the completion of the book. Maulvi Abdul Haq published this title from Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu in Delhi.

After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, upon the request of the Government of Pakistan, Dr. Siddiqui migrated to Karachi, Pakistan in 1950. In 1952 he founded Pakistan’s first mathematical society by the name of “All Pakistan Mathematics Association”.

Dr. Siddiqui moved to Pakistan soon after its foundation in 1947 and helped lay the foundations of the Pakistani education system. Later he did research in atomic physics for the Pakistani Atomic Energy Commission in integrated nuclear deterrance development.

Ishrat Hussain Usmani (April 15, 1917 – June 17, 1992)

Dr. Usmani got his Ph.D in Atomic Physics in just two years from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, entitled “A study of the growth of compound crystals by electron diffraction” under the supervision of renowned physicist Niels Bohr – The Nobel laureate and founder of the atomic model. Later he conducted research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States, together with physicists who had worked in the Manhatten project (the project that created the world’s first nuclear bomb). He became the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1960 and, together with the Nobel Laureate Dr. Abdus Salam, set up Pakistan’s biggest research institute, the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH).

Despite all this, Usmani was a strong advocate of peaceful nuclear technology and was uncomfortable with Bhutto’s need to turn Pakistan’s nuclear program into a bomb-making project. Usmani developed serious differences with and resentment towards Bhutto after the latter kept interfering in his work. After the 1971 war, Usman’s relations with Bhutto deteriorated further and Usmani became ever more vocal about Bhutto and his policies. In January 1972, Abdus Salam arranged and participated in a secret meeting, later called the “Multan Meeting” where Salam invited Usmani to meet with Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. At this meeting Usmani was the only scientist to have protested against the atomic bomb project, while Abdus Salam remained silent in support of Bhutto.

Apart from this Usmani contributed to the rise of Pakistan’s science by providing bureaucratic support to Abdus Salam to establish the Space Research Commission (SUPARCO). In 1962, Usmani and Salam traveled to the United States where they had a brief meeting with NASA officials. Due to their efforts, the United States and NASA’s engineers and scientists visited Pakistan where NASA decided to set up the country’s first spaceport, Sonmiani Terminal Launch.

[quote]Hussaini was the first Pakistani to publish a research paper on super-string theory[/quote]

Faheem Hussaini

Dr. Hussaini got his Ph. D from the Imperial College in London. He taught at the Quaid-e-Azam university for several years but left Pakistan soon after the establishment of General Zia-ul-Haq’s military regime due to intense political opposition. He was the first Pakistani to publish a research paper on super-string theory and did groundbreaking research with Dr. Abdus Salam at the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Italy. Towards the end of his life, he returned to Pakistani and joined the science faculty of the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore.

Nazir Ahmed

Dr. Nazir Ahmed got his Ph. D in Experimental Physics in 1925 from the University of Cambridge after studying under Ernest Rutherford. He became the first chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1956.

Abdus Salam

Undoubtedly the greatest Pakistani scientist of all time, and the only Pakistani to win a Nobel prize in Physics. His services are unparalleled. He founded the International Center fr Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Commission (SUPARCO) and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), along with serving as the director-general of UNESCO. Most importantly, he unified the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces in quantum field theory by postulating the electroweak theory, a feat that won him the Nobel Prize.

There is a route named after him at the European Center for Theoretical Physics (CERN), in Geneva, Switzerland. In Beijing, the prime minister and president of China attended a dinner hosted in his honour while the South Korean president requested Salam to advise Korean scientists on how to win the Nobel Prize. Salam was also presented with dozens of honorary degrees of doctorate and awards for his hard work. The Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, invited him to India and bestowed a great gesture of respect by not only serving him tea with her own hands, but also sitting by his feet. Heck, he is even mentioned in my old A-Level Physics book.