London
The first Pakistani to be awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory, Dr Abdus Salam’s house in Britain has been declared a national heritage site by the United Kingdom government.
Founder of the Theoretical Physics Department at Imperial College London, the scientist resided there from 1957 till 1996, when he passed away.
Recently, the English Heritage unveiled a Blue Plaque which was installed outside his former home.
“Abdus Salam 1926-1996, Physicist, Nobel Laureate and Champion of Science in developing countries, lived here,” it read.
Professor Michael Duff who completed his PhD in 1972 under the supervision of Professor Salam, too commented on the acknowledgement, praising his mentor whole-heartedly.
“A blue plaque on the house in Putney where he lived for 40 years is a fitting tribute to Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, who was not only one of the finest scientists of the twentieth century, having unified two of the four fundamental forces of nature, but who also dedicated his life to the betterment of science and education in the developing world,” he said.
Professor Ian Walmsley, another one his students and now a provost at Imperial, deemed Salam’s contribution to the subject profound, calling his “commitment to science deep, as exemplified by his founding of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, which has the aim of building science capability and capacity in the developing world.”
His son Ahmad Salam, said the words on the plaque would have made his father very happy. “For him, above all else, that was the legacy he wanted to impart.”—AP
