Salam, Abdus

(1926–96) Pakistani theoretical physicist: developed unified theory of the weak nuclear force and electromagnetism.

Salam’s early career shifted between Punjab University, Cambridge University and Lahore, where he became a professor at the Government College and Punjab University. He then lectured at Cambridge (1954–6) and in 1957 became professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. Salam’s concern for his subject in developing countries led to his setting up the International Centre of Theoretical Physics in Trieste in 1964.

Physicists recognize four basic forces in nature: gravity, electromagnetism and the ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ nuclear forces, which are active only within nuclear range. In 1979 Salam won the Nobel Prize for physics together with . Independently each had produced a theory explaining both the ‘weak’ nuclear force and ‘electromagnetic’ interactions. This led to the prediction of neutral currents, later found by experiments at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in 1973, and ‘intermediate vector bosons’, first seen in 1983.