Catalogue of the papers and correspondenceof
Muhammad Abdus Salam KBE FRS
(1926-1996)
Volume 1
General introduction
Section A: Biographical
Section B: Research
Section C: Imperial College, London
by Lizzie Richmond, Paul Newman and Peter Harper
NCUACScatalogue no. 99/4/01
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
Title:
Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Muhammad Abdus Salam,
KBE FRS (1926-1996), theoretical physicist
Compiled by:
Lizzie Richmond, Paul Newman and Peter Harper
Description level:
Fonds
Date of material:
1939-2000
Extent of material:
351 boxes, ca 10006 items
Deposited in:
The Library, ICTP, Trieste, Italy
Reference code:
Not applicable
© 2001 National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, University of Bath.
NCUACScatalogue no.99/4/01
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
The compilation and production of this
catalogue was madepossible by a grant from
The Abdus Salam International Centre for
Theoretical Physics.
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
NOT ALL THE MATERIAL IN THIS COLLECTION
MAY YET BE AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION.
ENQUIRIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE
FIRST INSTANCE TO:
THE LIBRARIAN
THE ABDUS SALAM INTERNATIONAL CENTRE
FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS
TRIESTE
ITALY
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
LIST OF CONTENTS
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Items
Page
SECTION A
BIOGRAPHICAL
A.1-A.871
14
SECTION B
RESEARCH
B.1-B.303
76
SECTION C
IMPERIAL COLLEGE, LONDON
C.1-C.31
qay
SECTION D
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THEORETICAL
D.1-D.2122
121
PHYSICS
SECTION E
MANUSCRIPTS AND PUBLICATIONS
E.1-E.875
270
SECTION F
LECTURES AND BROADCASTS
F.1-F.449
346
SECTION G
UN ORGANISATIONS
G.1-G.315
393
SECTION H
SOCIETIES AND ORGANISATIONS
H.1-H.320
409
SECTION J
VISITS AND CONFERENCES
J.1-J.1885
432
SECTION K
THIRD WORLD AND DEVELOPMENT
K.1-K.660
628
SECTION L
SCIENCE AND THE ARABIC AND ISLAMIC WORLD
L.1-L.74
655
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
SECTION M
PAKISTAN
M.1-M.478
663
SECTIONN
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE AND INVITATIONS
N.1-N.1280
696
SECTIONO
REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
0.1-0.351
766
INDEX OF CORRESPONDENTS
788
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
6
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
PROVENANCE
The papers were received from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy in July
1996 with additions on various dates between 1997 and 2001.
OUTLINE OF THE CAREER OF ABDUS SALAM
Abdus Salam was born on 29 January 1926. He was brought up in the small town of Jhang, in the
Punjab, then part of British India, now in Pakistan. His father, Choudhary Muhammad Hussain, was a
teacher and minor educational official whose family (Salam had one sister and six brothers)lived in a
two-room housewith no electricity or running water. Salam's talent for learning and original thought
showed at an early age. When he wasfourteen he won a scholarship to Government College, Lahore
and his first paper, on the solution of a set of simultaneous non-linear algebraic equations, was
published during his fourth year of study.
In 1946 Salam was awarded a special Punjab Government scholarship to the University of
Cambridge. During his first two years at St John's College he studied mathematics but he had already
decided to go into theoretical physics and on the advice of his tutor, F. Hoyle, he spent his remaining
year studying physics. Although he found experimental physics, under the supervision of D. H.
Wilkinson, moredifficult, he graduated with a doublefirst in 1949.
After a short visit to Pakistan Salam approached N. Kemmer and asked to be taken on as his
research student in theoretical physics. Kemmer had another research student at the time, P. T.
Matthews, and suggested that he might have some problems left over that Salam could tackle.
Matthews asked Salam to look at a gap in F. J. Dyson's recently formulated proof of renormalization
theory. Salam found a solution very quickly and consequently won the Smith's Prize for the best
predoctoral work in physics at Cambridge. He joined Matthewsatthe Institute of Advanced Studies,
Princeton, USA, where they continued to study renormalization theory. Their work helped to establish
Salam as a physicist of international importance and resulted in a friendly collaboration which was to
last until Matthews’ death in 1987.
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
7
Despite being offered a permanent position at Princeton, on the expiry of his extended scholarship,
Salam returned to Pakistan where he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at both Punjab
University and GovernmentCollege, Lahore. By the end of 1953, however, the practical impossibility
of conducting advanced scientific research in a developing country and worseningpolitical agitation
against the Ahmadiyya sectof Islam to which he belonged had combined to make Salam increasingly
unhappy. In January 1954 heleft Pakistan to take up the post of Lecturer and Fellow of St John's
College, Cambridge where he resumed his research work concentrating particularly on dispersion
relations.
In January 1957 Salam joined Imperial College, London, as Professor of Applied
Mathematics and by doing so becamethefirst Asian to hold a chair in a science faculty at any British
university. He transferred departments in 1960 to become Professor of Theoretical Physics and, with
Matthews, continued to work on fundamental field theory.
Salam maintained close links with Pakistan and remained convinced that the successful development
of Third World countries was largely dependent on fostering their scientific and technological
capacity. In 1961 Salam was appointed (part-time) Scientific Adviser to President Ayub Khan. He
subsequently established the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Committee (SUPARCO) and
foundedthe Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) as well as research centres for
wheat and rice. His attempts to tackle the increasingly urgent problem of salinity and waterlogging
caused byirrigation were, however, less successful. The government rejected the measures he
proposedastoo costly to implement and after 1965, with the outbreak of war between Pakistan and
India, it became difficult to get governmental support for any scientific project not linked to defence.
When Ayub Khan was replaced as President by Yahya Khan in 1968, Salam's influence was
diminished but he retained his post until 1974 when President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared the
Ahmadiyya non-Muslim. Salam resigned in protest.
Salam's experiences in Pakistan had made him determinedto do all he could to improve the position
of scientists in Third World countries. He conceived the idea of a centre of excellence to which
scientists from developing nations could come on a regular basis for visits of a few weeks or months
in order to stay in touch with current research while remaining for most of the year in their own
countries. Through persuasiveness and persistence Salam eventually won the support of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and, with the additional financial backing of UNESCO and
the Italian government and the assistance of P. Budinich, the International Centre for Theoretical
Physics (ICTP) was officially inaugurated in Trieste, Italy, in 1964. In 1968 ICTP moved to a new
building on the outskirts of the city which offered room for expansion. Salam wasthe director of the
Centre from its foundation until 1993, dividing his time equally between London and Trieste. Under his
guidance ICTP survivedfinancial hardship and political crisis, and flourished.
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
8
Salam's doctoral
thesis,
submitted
in
1952,
set out
his
early
original work on quantum
electrodynamics and served asthe basis forhis later scientific career. At Imperial College, during the
late 1950s, Salam and Matthews superintended the creation of one of the leading centres of research
in fundamental theoretical physics. Quantum field theory with particular emphasis on the long-term
goal of finding a unified approach to the fundamental forces at work in the worlds of nuclear and sub-
nuclear physics remained the main focus of Salam's research work. In the 1960s Salam was closely
involved with attempts to construct a theoretically coherent account of the ‘strong’ interactions that
bind together the constituents of nuclei. A sustained programme of research culminated in his
construction of a theory that unified the electromagnetic force with the 'weak' nuclear force
responsible for the radioactive decay of elementary particles. This critical theoretical development
formed the central component of what became knownasthe 'standard model of the electromagnetic
and nuclear forces. For his contribution to this discovery, confirmed by experiments carried out at
CERN in 1973, Salam was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979. During his final years
Salam's research branched out in new directions to encompass condensed-matter physics, biology
and the origin of chirality.
Salam was a memberof numerous international committees. He served as Scientific Secretary of the
Geneva Conferences on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in 1955 and 1958 and chaired the UN
Advisory Committee on Science and Technology in 1971-1972. He also chaired the UNESCO
Advisory Panel on Science, Technology and Society in 1981. He was a member of the South
Commission and of the Scientific Council of the Stockholm International Peace ResearchInstitute.
Salam received forty-five honorary degrees from twenty-eight countries and was a member of twenty-
four academies and institutes. He received a huge number of prizes and awards including the Atoms
for Peace Award in 1968, the first Edinburgh Medal in 1989 and the Catalunya International Prize in
1990. Salam was elected as the Royal Society's youngest Fellow, at the age ofthirty-three, in 1959.
He won the Society's Hughes Medal in 1964, Royal Medal in 1978 and Copley Medal in 1990. Salam
was awarded an honorary KBE in 1989.
In the mid-1980s Salam developed a degenerative neuronal disease which madehislife increasingly
difficult but which did not finally prevent him from working and travelling until the early 1990s. He
married twice. He had one son and three daughters byhisfirst wife, Amtul Hafeez Begum, and a son
and a daughter by his second wife, Louise Johnson FRS. Salam died at his home in Oxford on 21
November1996.
For further information on Salam's scientific work see 'Muhammad Abdus Salam, KBE' by T. W.B.
Kibble, Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society 44, 385-401 (1998).
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
9
DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION
The material is presented in the order given in the contentslist. It covers the period from 1939 to
2000. Additional
explanatory
notes,
information and cross-references are appended where
appropriate to the separate sections, sub-sections and individual entries in the body of the catalogue.
The following paragraphs are intended only to draw attention to items which may be ofparticular
interest.
Section A, Biographical, is extensive in its coverage of Salam's career, honours and awards. It ranges
from documentation of Salam's first appointment as a lecturer at the University of Cambridge to
correspondencerelating to the award of his KBE. Most of the awards, prizes, fellowships and
honorary degrees that Salam received between 1954 and 1996 are represented. Important material
concerning the Nobel Prize appears here. There is also material relating to Salam's unsuccessful
candidacy for the Directorship of UNESCOin 1987. A large number of press cuttings and magazine
articles on Salam collected and retained at ICTP are presented in this section. Carefully drafted
‘proposals' and memoranda recording Salam's (personal) views on international scientific co-
operation and the developmentof the Third World can also be found here.
Section B, Research, presents notebooks, research notes and scientific correspondencecovering the
period 1939-1993. The notebooks document Salam's research from undergraduate and postgraduate
studies undertaken at Cambridge and Princeton through notes for lectures delivered to students at
Imperial College to less structured notes on work carried out at ICTP. Research notes and early
drafts of scientific papers form a separate sequence within this section. These include material
relating to work on chirality conducted by Salam during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The scientific
correspondencecovers the period 1950-1992. It comprises exchanges with colleagues and friends on
a broad range of research-related subjects retained by Salam as ‘Physicists’ Letters’.
Section C, Imperial College, London, is very slight. It contains a small amount of material relating to
Salam's administrative and academic duties at Imperial College.
Section D, International Centre for Theoretical Physics, is the most substantial in the catalogue. It
contains material relating to all aspects of the organisation and managementof ICTP between 1960
and 1996. Papers documenting Salam's duties and career as Director, and subsequently President,
of the Centre are grouped together. A useful collection of papers, publications and reference works
concerning the history and developmentof ICTPis includedin this section. There are sequencesof
material documenting Salam's official communications with the International Atomic Energy Agency
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
10
(IAEA) and UNESCO, and general ICTP administrative and funding issues. The material relating to
the design and implementation of the Centre's scientific programmes is useful though not
comprehensive. There is a large group of papers described at ICTP as ‘Country Files' relating to the
initiation and maintenance of ICTP links with academic institutions and international centres of study
outside Trieste. There are also papers and correspondencerelating to the Centre's fellowship and
associateship schemes. Material documenting meetings and conferences held at the Centre is
presentedhere.
Section E, Manuscripts and publications, presents diverse documentation of Salam's scientific and
non-scientific
output. The largest component of this
material was described by Salam as
‘manuscripts’. It consists of a collection of notes and drafts by Salam and publications by others
dating from the early 1950s to 1989 which mayrelate to the preparation of Salam's published papers
andlectures. In addition there is significant documentation, covering the period 1975-1995, relating to
a number of Salam's major published works on both scientific and Third World development topics
which is arranged bytitle. [deals and Realities, a collection of essays on various developmental
issues, Notes on Science, Technology and Science Education in the Development of the South, a
report for the South Commission widely distributed as ‘The Red Book’, and the First Dirac Memorial
Lecture published by Cambridge University Press are all represented here. The section also contains
correspondencewith journals and periodicals concerning Salam's contributions and the translation of
some of Salam's publications into languages other than English. Two sequences of numbered off-
prints of Salam's papers published between 1943 and 1993 are presentedin this section.
Section F, Lectures and broadcasts, contains material relating to scientific and non-scientific lectures,
speeches and broadcasts delivered by Salam. There is an incomplete numbered chronological
sequence of speeches covering the period 1961-1993 and some additional and overlapping material
documenting Salam's lectures and broadcasts between 1951 and 1989. A small amount of
correspondence concerning the administrative work associated with the distribution of printed
versions of some lectures and speechesis included here. The section also contains a large number
of transparencies which appear to have been produced by Salam to illustrate some of his later
lectures.
Section G, UN organisations, documents Salam's association with various
United
Nations
organisations. These include UNESCO, the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and
the United Nations University (UNU). There are papers relating to the international centres
specialising in branches of science such as genetic engineering and biotechnology, and pure and
applied chemistry which Salam helped to establish with UNIDO support.
In 1974 a number of
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
14
prominent scientists joined an international protest against anti-Israeli policies recently adopted by
UNESCO. ICTP waseffected by the resulting boycott of all UNESCO-funded bodies. A small amount
of material relating to Salam's managementofthis difficult situation is included here.
Section H, Societies and organisations, presents material relating to Salam's involvementwith a large
number of international, national, regional and local organisations and societies. Some of these
organisations, such as the European Physical Society are purely scientific in their scope and
activities. In addition many, such as the African Union of Physics, the Arab Academyof Sciences and
the Centro Internacional de Fisica, Bogota, reflect Salam's strong connections with the Third World.
Other organisations, such as the Stockholm International Peace ResearchInstitute (SIPRI) and the
International Federation of Institutes of Advanced Studies demonstrate Salam's commitment to world
peace and the promotion of science as a means of advancing development. There is a small amount
of material relating to Salam's interest in the UK High Energy Particle Physics Review Group chaired
by Sir John Kendrew.
Section J, Visits and conferences, covers the period 1956-1997 and is substantial. It is presented in
two main sequences, invitations accepted andinvitations not accepted. It contains documentation,
often consisting of correspondencerelating to travel arrangements, programmesand proceedings,of
most of the conferences, meetings and seminars to which Salam wasinvited. Conferences attended
by Salam cover topics ranging from high energy physics and science education to alternative energy
sources and religious freedom. They took place all over the world. Material relating to many of the
numerous meetings on science and Third World development to which Salam contributed is
presented here. There is also documentation of longer visits, sometimes involving extendedtrips to
several different countries. A small number of miscellaneous conferences attended by Salam but not
included in the main sequenceof such material are grouped separately within this section.
Section K, Third world and development, comprises documentation of Salam's deep interest in the
scientific and developmental advance of Third World countries. It contains material relating to a
number of
international
organisations.
There are some important
papers concerning
the
establishment of the Third World Academy of Sciences of which Salam wasPresident from 1983 to
1994. There is also material relating to Salam's work with the South Commission during the period
1987-1996. Correspondence and papers concerning the Fund for Physics, which Salam set up to
provide financial assistance to young scientists based in the Third World, appear in this section. A
very small amount of material relating to the administration of Salam's Third World science prizes
after his death is included here.
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
12
Section L, Science and the Arabic and Islamic world, is not extensive. It contains material relating to
the various societies, organisations and educational bodies working for scientific advance in an
Islamic context with which Salam, as an advocate of development through science and a devout
Muslim, was connected. A small number of conferences and meetings concerning Islam, religion and
science and religious freedom to which Salam wasinvited are documentedin this section.
Section M, Pakistan, documents Salam's relations and interactions with Pakistan. It contains material
relating to the numerous Pakistan societies and organisations with which Salam was associated in a
personal or, as Scientific Adviser to the President, professional capacity. There is also a small
amountofofficial correspondence with the Pakistani government. Salam's efforts to tackle Pakistan's
waterlogging and salinity problems, his interest in a scientific approach to achieving improvementsin
national agriculture and food production, and his commitment to the promotion of Pakistan science
education are represented here. The section includes material relating to Salam's Iqbal Memorial
Lectures broadcast on Radio Pakistan in 1965.
Section N, Private correspondence and invitations, is composed of various correspondence and
invitations addressed to Salam personally and differentiated in his filing system as ‘private’. The
correspondence covers a broad range of topics but consists mainly of requests for financial help or
advice from youngscientists based in developing countries. Many of the letters are accompanied by
draft papers sent to Salam for comment or assessment. There is a separate sequence of material
relating to correspondence received from Pakistani students and scientists. Invitations asking Salam
to attend events, lend his support to campaigns or serve on committees and editorial boards are also
includedin this section.
Section
O,
References and recommendations,
covers
the
period
1964-1994.
It
contains
correspondenceand papers relating to requests for references and recommendations received by
Salam. These range from informal petitions for help from individuals hoping to study science to formal
correspondencerelating to the suitability of a certain candidate for a particular academic post. There
is a separate sequence of material relating to letters received from students and scientists based in
Pakistan. Documentation of Salam's nomination of candidates for various prizes and awards also
appearsin this section.
Thereis also an index of correspondents.
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
13
We are very grateful to Mrs Anne Gatti, Director's Office, ICTP, for her help and assistance
throughout this long and important project.
L. Richmond
Bath 2001
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
14
SECTION A
BIOGRAPHICAL
A.1-A.871
A.1-A.7
OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES
A.8-A.26
BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
A.27-A.468
CAREER, HONOURS AND AWARDS
A.469-A.607
‘PERSONAL DOCUMENTS'
A.608-A.854
PRESS CUTTINGS AND ARTICLES
A.855-A.865
‘PROPOSALS'
A.866-A.871
APPENDIX
A.1-A.7
OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES
1996-1998
A.1
‘Muhammad Abdus Salam, KBE' by T. W. B. Kibble, Biographical Memoirs of
Fellows of the Royal Society 44, 385-401 (1998).
A.2-A.4
Obituaries.
A.2
A.3
A.4
A.5
The Guardian, 22 November 1996.
The Times, 26 November 1996.
The Independent, 29 November 1996.
Announcement of Salam's death,
SALAM, Muhammad Abdus Vol1 v2
Published: 13 September, 2023 Author: admin