Abdus Salam - Advocacy For Science

Advocacy For Science

In 1964, Salam founded the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, in the North-East of Italy and served as its director until 1993. In 1974, he founded International Nathiagali Summer College (INSC) to promote science in his country. The INSC is an annual meeting of scientists from all over the world to come to Pakistan and hold discussions on different aspects of physics and science. Even today, the INSC holds an annual meetings, and Salam's pupil student Riazuddin is its director since its inception.

In 1997, the scientists at ICPT commemorated Salam and renamed ICTP as "Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics". Salam had advocated for development of Science in third world countries, and attended various seminars in different countries. Throughout the years, Salam served on a number of United Nations committees concerning science and technology in developing countries. Salam also founded the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and was a leading figure in the creation of a number of international centres dedicated to the advancement of science and technology.

During his visit at the Institute of Physics of Quaid-i-Azam University in 1979, Salam had explained after receiving his award: Physicists believed there are four fundamental forces of nature; the gravitational force, the weak and strong nuclear force, and the electromagnetic force. Salam was a firm believer that "scientific thought is the common heritage of mankind," and that developing nations needed to help themselves and invest in their own scientists to boost development and reduce the gap between the Global South and the Global North, thus contributing to a more peaceful world.

Although Salam had departed from Pakistan, he did not terminate his connection to Pakistan. Salam continued inviting Pakistan's scientists to ICTP, and maintained a research programme for the Pakistani scientists. Many prominent scientists, including Ghulam Murtaza, Riazuddin, Kamaluddin Ahmed, Faheem Hussain, Raziuddin Siddiqui, Munir Ahmad Khan, Ishfaq Ahmad, and I. H. Usmani, considered him as their mentor and a teacher.