Salam, Abdus (1926-1996), a Pakistani physicist, was the first Pakistani to win a Nobel Prize. He played a key role in developing a theory that unifies the weak nuclear force within atoms and the force of electromagnetism. For his work, Salam won a one-third share in the 1979 Nobel Prize for physics. Salam shared the prize with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg of the United States.
Salam was born in Jhang Maghiana in the province of Punjab. He was educated at Punjab University and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. Salam was professor of mathematics at the Government College of Lahore and at Punjab University from 1951 to 1954. After lecturing at Cambridge, in 1957 he became professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College, London. In 1964, he set up the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy.
