مسلمانوں کا نیوٹن ۔ ڈاکٹر عبدالسلام — Page 382
372 Daily Times, Nov 25, 2002 Remembering Abdus Salam By M۔V۔Ramana On this anniversary of his death, it would be a fitting tribute to Salam not only to remember his great contributions to science but to also remember his belief "that only liberal, tolerant, and pluralistic societies can advance scientifically and culturally” and work towards such a society Professor Abdus Salam, the greatest Pakistani scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979, died this week six years ago۔Apart from his numerous scientific contributions, Salam was also a great institution builder, as exemplified by the Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy that he founded and directed۔Born in 1926 in Jhang, Salam could well claim to be a child prodigy۔At the age of 14, he made history by scoring the highest marks ever recorded in the Matriculation Examination of the University of Punjab۔When it came to going to college, Salam was clearly attracted by science and mathematics۔The last six or seven decades of British rule witnessed an extraordinary growth of science in the subcontinent۔Several scientists made their mark in different fields۔Among them were people like J۔C۔Bose, S۔N۔Bose, C۔V۔Raman, S۔Ramanujan, P۔C۔Ray, Meghnad Saha and S۔S۔Bhatnagar۔It is likely that Salam was inspired by some of them۔Indeed his very first research publication, done when he was only 16 years of age and an undergraduate at Government College in Lahore, was about the work of Ramanujan in Mathematics۔Like many of the leading scientists of that period, Salam went to England to study۔There again he was extraordinarily successful and won many prizes and scholarships۔His 1951 Ph۔D۔thesis contained fundamental work in the field of quantum electrodynamics - which tries to explain the interactions between light and matter in a manner consistent with the methods of quantum mechanics gained him a formidable reputation۔- - and The same year he returned to Pakistan to teach mathematics at Government College, Lahore, and in 1952 became head of the Mathematics Department of Punjab University۔But he was intellectually isolated and found no opportunities to interact with fellow scientists۔So Salam returned to England where he became a lecturer at Cambridge University۔This was clearly not an easy decision for him and he seemed to be trying to make amends for it forever۔If only one cricketer had to be given credit for putting the West Indies on the world map, it would have to be Learie Constantine۔Constantine did this by immigrating to England and making his mark as a great bowler by playing in the English league۔About this, the great West Indian historian C۔L۔R۔James writes: "if the West Indies cannot afford to keep their great cricketers at home they don't deserve to