Sunday, June 28, 2020
By:
Some of you may have noticed that I consistently chose one-word titles for my blog posts. I like to think that it is because single, strong words are attention-grabbing. The more likely reason is that I am a creature of habit. Regardless, the word for this week is unified, thanks to Dr. Abdus Salam, one of the three men credited for the discovery of electroweak force.
This week, my research focus shifted about a thousand years (without changing location). My first lesson plan highlighted the contributions of polymaths in the Islamic Golden Age. My second lesson plan centers on the first, and only, Physics Nobel Laureate from a Muslim nation, Abdus Salam. I think that because of the geographical situation, the two topics complement each other in interesting ways, which I hope to further later on.
Some of you may have heard of Abdus Salam, either from a recent documentary or from a book, Cosmic Anger, which was reviewed in Physics Today several years back. Yet, I will venture the guess that many of you may not know of him (I for one did not), which will change shortly.
There are three easily identifiable focuses in the biographies of Abdus Salam: physics, faith, and commitment to advance physics research in developing nations. Salam became interested in physics at a young age, and because of his promise, the state of Pakistan funded his education at Cambridge. He made a name for himself in the international physics community even before he completed his PhD. Salam returned to Pakistan to develop physics there, but he ran into institutional difficulties and faced religious persecution. Salam departed Pakistan for England, where he worked on unification theory and continued to support science in developing countries.
I am astounded by the number of facets in his life and work, including his enormous contributions to physics, his activism, his response to persecution, and his navigation of the introduction of nuclear weapons. I plan to include some of his striking quotes in the lesson plan, including the following from his speech at the 1979 Nobel Prize Banquet.
In regards to activities outside of my work, the word unified continues to apply. Both in activity portions of this week’s colloquium and in our own communications, I have found our internship group to be highly supportive of others’ work and efforts. It is awesome, particularly given that we have never been able to meet in person.
Maria Stokes