NATIONAL CATALOGUING UNIT
FOR THE ARCHIVES OF
CONTEMPORARY SCIENTISTS
Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of
Muhammad Abdus Salam KBE FRS
(1926-1996)
Volume 1
General introduction
Section A: Biographical
Section B: Research
Section C: Imperial College, London
NCUACS catalogue no. 99/4/01
by Lizzie Richmond, Paul Newman and Peter Harper
Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of
Muhammad Abdus Salam KBE FRS
(1926-1996)
Volume 1
General introduction
Section A: Biographical
Section B: Research
Section C: Imperial College, London
NCUACS catalogue no. 99/4/01
by Lizzie Richmond, Paul Newman and Peter Harper
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
Title:
Compiled by:
Description level:
Fonds
Date of material:
1939-2000
Lizzie Richmond, Paul Newman and Peter Harper
Extent of material:
351 boxes, ca 10006 items
Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Muhammad Abdus Salam,
KBE FRS (1926-1996), theoretical physicist
NCUACS catalogue no.99/4/01
© 2001 National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists, University of Bath.
Reference code:
Not applicable
Deposited in:
The Library, ICTP, Trieste, Italy
Abdus Salam
NCUACS 99/4/01
The compilation and production of this
catalogue was made possible by a grant from
The Abdus Salam International Centre for
Theoretical Physics.
Abdus Salam
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NOT ALL THE MATERIAL IN THIS COLLECTION
MAY YET BE AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION.
ENQUIRIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE
FIRST INSTANCE TO:
FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS
TRIESTE
THE LIBRARIAN
THE ABDUS SALAM INTERNATIONAL CENTRE
ITALY
Abdus Salam
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LIST OF CONTENTS
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
SECTION A
BIOGRAPHICAL
SECTION B
RESEARCH
A.1-A.871
B.1-B.303
SECTION C
IMPERIAL COLLEGE, LONDON
SECTION D
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THEORETICAL
D.1-D.2122
PHYSICS
E.1-E.875
G.1-G.315
H.1-H.320
J.1-J.1885
SECTION F
LECTURES AND BROADCASTS
F.1-F.449
SECTION E
MANUSCRIPTS AND PUBLICATIONS
SECTION H
SOCIETIES AND ORGANISATIONS
SECTION G
UN ORGANISATIONS
K.1-K.660
SCIENCE AND THE ARABIC AND ISLAMIC WORLD
THIRD WORLD AND DEVELOPMENT
SECTION J
VISITS AND CONFERENCES
SECTION K
SECTION L
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SECTION M
PAKISTAN
M.1-M.478
SECTIONN
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE AND INVITATIONS
N.1-N.1280
SECTIONO
REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
0.1-0.351
INDEX OF CORRESPONDENTS
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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 house with no electricity or running water. Salam's talent for learning and original thought
showed at an early age. When he was fourteen 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.
Wilkinson, more difficult, he graduated with a double first in 1949.
H.
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.
Cambridge. During his first two years at St John's College he studied mathematics but he had already
In
1946 Salam was awarded a special Punjab Government scholarship to
the
University of
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.
Matthews, and suggested that he might have some problems left over that Salam could tackle.
last until Matthews’ death in 1987.
theory. Salam found a solution very quickly and consequently won the Smith's Prize for the best
Salam as a physicist of international importance and resulted in a friendly collaboration which was to
predoctoral work in physics at Cambridge. He joined Matthews at the Institute of Advanced Studies,
Princeton, USA, where they continued to study renormalization theory. Their work helped to establish
Matthews asked Salam to look at a gap in F. J. Dyson's recently formulated proof of renormalization
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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 Government College, Lahore. By the end of 1953, however, the practical impossibility
of conducting advanced scientific research in
a developing country and worsening political agitation
against the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam to which he belonged had combined to make Salam increasingly
unhappy. In January 1954 he left 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 became the first 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
founded the 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
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.
proposed as too 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.
Salam's experiences in Pakistan had made him determined to 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
in order to stay in touch with current research while remaining for most of the year in their own
caused by irrigation were, however, less successful. The government rejected the measures he
guidance ICTP survived financial hardship and political crisis, and flourished.
Centre from its foundation until 1993, dividing his time equally between London and Trieste. Under his
Physics (ICTP) was officially inaugurated in Trieste, Italy,
in 1964. In 1968 ICTP moved to a new
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and, with the additional financial backing of UNESCO and
building on the outskirts of the city which offered room for expansion. Salam was the director of the
scientists from developing nations could come on a regular basis for visits of a few weeks or months
countries. Through persuasiveness and persistence Salam eventually won the support of the
the Italian government and the assistance of P. Budinich, the International Centre for Theoretical
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Salam's
doctoral
thesis,
submitted
in
1952,
set
out
his
early
original
work
on quantum
electrodynamics and served as the basis for his 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 known as the '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 member of 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 Research Institute.
and a daughter by his second wife, Louise Johnson FRS. Salam died at his home in Oxford on 21
November 1996.
was awarded an honorary KBE in 1989.
four academies and institutes. He received a huge number of prizes and awards including the Atoms
1990. Salam was elected as the Royal Society's youngest Fellow, at the age of thirty-three, in 1959.
He won the Society's Hughes Medal in 1964, Royal Medal in 1978 and Copley Medal in 1990. Salam
for Peace Award in 1968, the first Edinburgh Medal in 1989 and the Catalunya International Prize in
Salam received forty-five honorary degrees from twenty-eight countries and was a member of twenty-
Kibble, Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society 44, 385-401 (1998).
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 by his first wife, Amtul Hafeez Begum, and a son
In the mid-1980s Salam developed a degenerative neuronal disease which made his life increasingly
For further information on Salam's scientific work see 'Muhammad Abdus Salam, KBE' by T. W. B.
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DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION
The material is presented in the order given in the contents list.
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 of particular
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
correspondence relating 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 UNESCO in 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 development of the Third World can also be found here.
correspondence covers 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 B, Research, presents notebooks, research notes and scientific correspondence covering 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
material documenting Salam's official communications with the International Atomic Energy Agency
concerning the history and development of ICTP is included in this section. There are sequences of
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 management of ICTP between 1960
of the Centre are grouped together. A useful collection of papers, publications and reference works
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.
and 1996. Papers documenting Salam's duties and career as Director, and subsequently President,
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(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 correspondence relating to the Centre's fellowship and
associateship schemes. Material documenting meetings and conferences held at the Centre is
presented here.
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 may relate to the preparation of Salam's published papers
and lectures. 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 by title. Ideals 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
documenting Salam's lectures and broadcasts between 1951
prints of Salam's papers published between 1943 and 1993 are presented in 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
Lecture published by Cambridge University Press are all represented here. The section also contains
correspondence concerning the administrative work associated with
the
distribution
of printed
correspondence with journals and periodicals concerning Salam‘s contributions and the translation of
sequence of speeches covering the period 1961-1993 and some additional and overlapping material
some of Salam's publications into languages other than English. Two sequences of numbered off-
versions of some lectures and speeches is included here. The section also contains a large number
In 1974 a number of
specialising in branches of science such as genetic engineering and biotechnology, and pure and
organisations. These include UNESCO, the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and
of transparencies which appear to have been produced by Salam to illustrate some of his later
the
United
Nations
University (UNU). There are papers relating
to
the
international centres
applied chemistry which Salam helped to establish with UNIDO support.
and
1989.
A small amount of
UN
organisations, documents Salam's
association
with
various
Section
G,
lectures.
United
Nations
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prominent scientists joined an international protest against anti-Israeli policies recently adopted by
UNESCO. ICTP was effected by the resulting boycott of all UNESCO-funded bodies. A small amount
of material relating to Salam's management of this difficult situation is included here.
Section H, Societies and organisations, presents material relating to Salam's involvement with 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 Academy of 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 Research Institute (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 and invitations not accepted. It contains documentation,
Section K, Third world and development, comprises documentation of Salam's deep interest in the
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
most of the conferences, meetings and seminars to which Salam was invited. Conferences attended
scientific and developmental advance of Third World countries. It contains material relating to
a
presented here. There is also documentation of longer visits, sometimes involving extended trips to
several different countries. A small number of miscellaneous conferences attended by Salam but not
often consisting of correspondence relating to travel arrangements, programmes and proceedings, of
by Salam cover topics ranging from high energy physics and science education to alternative energy
after his death is included here.
very small amount of material relating to the administration of Salam's Third World science prizes
1987-1996. Correspondence and papers concerning the Fund for Physics, which Salam set up to
establishment of the Third World Academy of Sciences of which Salam was President from 1983 to
provide financial assistance to young scientists based in the Third World, appear in this section. A
included in the main sequence of such material are grouped separately within this section.
number of
international
organisations.
There
are
some
important
papers
concerning
the
1994. There is also material relating to Salam's work with the South Commission during the period
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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 was invited are documented in 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
amount of official correspondence with the Pakistani government. Salam's efforts to tackle Pakistan's
waterlogging and salinity problems, his interest in a scientific approach to achieving improvements in
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
Section
O,
References
and
recommendations,
covers
the
period
draft papers sent to Salam for comment or assessment. There is a separate sequence of material
to attend events, lend his support to campaigns or serve on committees and editorial boards are also
correspondence and papers relating to requests for references and recommendations received by
correspondence relating to the suitability of a certain candidate for a particular academic post. There
advice from young scientists based in developing countries. Many of the letters are accompanied by
correspondence covers a broad range of topics but consists mainly of requests for financial help or
Salam. These range from informal petitions for help from individuals hoping to study science to formal
relating to correspondence received from Pakistani students and scientists. Invitations asking Salam
There is also an index of correspondents.
Pakistan. Documentation of Salam's nomination of candidates for various prizes and awards also
is a separate sequence of material relating to letters received from students and scientists based in
appears in this section.
included in this section.
1964-1994.
It
contains
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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
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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.87 1
APPENDIX
Obituaries.
The Guardian, 22 November 1996.
The Times, 26 November 1996.
OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES
1996-1998
‘Muhammad Abdus Salam, KBE' by T. W. B. Kibble, Biographical Memoirs of
Fellows of the Royal Society 44, 385-401 (1998).
July 1997.
Announcement of Salam's death,
SALAM, Muhammad Abdus Vol1 v1
Published: 20 November, 2023 Author: admin