Giants in History: Mohammad Abdus Salam

Mohammad Abdus Salam (29 January 1926 – 21 November 1996) was a theoretical physicist and the first Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize in science. He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for contributions to the electroweak unification theory, which explains the unity of the weak nuclear force and electromagnetism. For more than 40 years, Salam was a prolific researcher in theoretical elementary particle physics, contributing to many discoveries in the field of subatomic particles. A firm believer that "scientific thought is the common and shared heritage of mankind,” he founded Pakistan's space programme, and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy, to support researchers from developing countries.