The road named after Abdus Salam in CERN, Geneva.Salam returned to Pakistan in 1951 to teach Mathematics at the Government College, Lahore. In 1952, he became the Head of the Mathematics Department of the Punjab University. In 1954, Salam went for a lectureship at Cambridge, although he visited
Pakistan from time to time as an adviser on science policy to the Government of Pakistan. His work for Pakistan was far-reaching and influential. He was a member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and work their as a chief scientist with his students, a member of the Scientific Commission of Pakistan, Founder Chairman of Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission and Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of Pakistan from 1961 to 1974.
From 1957 onwards, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College, London. From 1964 onwards, has combined this position with that of Director of the International Centre For Theoretical Physics, a research institution in Trieste, Italy.
Salam had a prolific research career in theoretical elementary particle physics. He either pioneered or was associated with all the important developments in this field. He also served on a number of United Nations committees concerning science and technology in developing countries. Many prominent scientists, which includes, Ghulam Murtaza, Riazuddin, Kamaluddin Ahmed, Faheem Hussain, Raziuddin Siddiqui, Munir Ahmad Khan, Ishfaq Ahmad, and I. H. Usmani, considered him as their chief mentor and a teacher. Abdus salam played a important and a crucial role in preparing and teaching of future Pakistani engineers and scientists in the field of mathematics and physics.
Pakistan's Space Program:
It was Salam's advice to the President Field Marshal Ayub Khan, that led to the establishment of the national space agency of Pakistan. On 16 September 1961, Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) was established by an executive order. Salam was appointed its first chairman. To provide the man power, Salam had sent numerous Pakistani scientists abroad. Salam also appointed Air Commodore (Brigadier-General) Wladyslaw Turowicz, a noted Pakistani-Polish military scientist and an engineer, as Pakistan's rocket firing head.
Involvement in Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Programme:
Abdus Salam knew the importance of nuclear technology in Pakistan. Salam was a central figure in Pakistan's nuclear program. Abdus Salam was responsible for establishing the nuclear research institutes in Pakistan. In 1972, Government of Pakistan learned about the India's nuclear weapon program. Former Prime minister, Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, formed a group of nuclear scientists and engineers, initially headed by Abdus Salam. In 1965, the plutonium reactor Pakistan Atomic Research Reactor went critical under the leadership of Dr. Salam. In 1972, Salam, as Science advisor to the President, had arranged a secret meeting of nuclear scientists to meet Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Multan, which is known as the "Multan Meeting". Few months after the meeting, Salam, along with Munir Ahmad Khan and Riazuddin, met with Bhutto in his residence where the scientists have had briefed Bhutto about the nuclear program. After the meeting, Salam and Munir Ahmad Khan were made the head of the nuclear weapons programme. Salam also had done the groundbreaking work of the "Theoretical Physics Group", which was initially headed by Salam until 1974.
In December 1972, two theoretical physicists working at the ICTP were asked by Salam to report to noted Pakistani nuclear scientist, Munir Ahmad Khan (late), then-PAEC chairman. This marked the beginning of the “Theoretical Physics Group" or TPG. The TPG, in PAEC, was assigned to develop the theoretical designs of Pakistan's nuclear weapon devices. The TPG team under the leadership of Riazuddin, who was also Salam's student, completed work on the theoretical design of the nuclear weapon device by 1977.
Contributions:
Salam's primary focus was research on the physics of elementary particles. His particular contributions included:
* two-component neutrino theory and the prediction of the inevitable parity violation in weak interaction;
* gauge unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions, the unified force is called the "Electroweak" force, a name given to it by Salam, and which forms the basis of the Standard Model in particle physics;
* predicted existence of weak neutral currents and W particles and Z particles before their experimental discovery;
* symmetry properties of elementary particles; unitary symmetry;
* renormalization of meson theories;
* gravity theory and its role in particle physics; two tensor theory of gravity and strong interaction physics;
* unification of electroweak with strong nuclear forces, grand unification theory;
* related prediction of proton-decay;
* Pati-Salam model, a grand unification theory;
* Supersymmetry theory, in particular formulation of Superspace and formalism of superfields in 1974;
* the theory of supermanifolds, as a geometrical framework for understanding supersymmetry, in 1974;
* Supergeometry, the geometric basis for supersymmetry, in 1974;
* application of the Higgs mechanism to the electroweak symmetry breaking;
* prediction of the magnetic photon in 1966;
