Abdus Salam: the passionate, compassionate man

Transcription

1 : the passionate, compassionate man and his masterpiece the ICTP Miguel A. Virasoro Universidad Nacional General Sarmiento-Argentina Memorial Meeting Nanyang Tech University 25th-28th January 2016

2 - A multidimensional genius A cautionary introduction: In this short talk I will present a particular perspective on, the scientist, the humanist, the engaged human being. In this way I hope to illuminate an aspect of his image. We are, all of us who have presented personal testimonies here and in the past, adding facets to an icon, a source of inspiration, an example to cherish and to follow. All our testimonies are subjective. Not to be confronted against each other but to be thought as complementary to add depth to our image. One example:cosmic Anger life made a difference for all of us. His accomplishments are manifest. Because of that I believe our image of him should be faithful to his life and as complex as his personality. We should not try to "explain", we should not try to reduce his complex humanity to that of a Hollywood hero.

3 Statement of Collusion of Interests Briefly: the moments in my life when I crossed Salam s path (and benefitted from the encounter) JJ Giambiagi participates in the meeting organised by Salam and Budinich in the Castelletto-Miramare. He is very positive but sceptic Military Coup. The University closes after the "Night of the long sticks" I have to leave Argentina and the ICTP is (always) available. But this time a letter from Hector Rubinstein makes me choose the Weizmann: massive quark models vs U(6,6)) With 2 colleagues we return to Argentina. I pass by Trieste and negotiate with Salam 2 Associateships for the 3 of us. He was enthusiastic even if it was not the norm. In Argentina I switch to a more applied subject. Guided by Isidoro Orlansky (GFDL-Princeton Univ) we organize a group in Oceanography with an ambition: to develop a model of the South Atlantic.

4 The Government veers abruptly to the right and Death Squads appear focused on the Universities. Many in our group are threatened and decide to leave. Here again the ICTP helps us. The case of Silvia Garzoli I am professor in Rome and make frequent visits to ICTP After my appointment as Director to ICTP I visit Salam in his home in England. He is not able to talk but when I express my commitment to continue his fantastic work at ICTP his eyes shine. These 6 close encounters in more than 30 years don t look like a strong interaction. The ICTP did represent for me like an anchor in the middle of turmoil, and also a meeting place where I would meet colleagues from the South.

5 Understanding the man through his creation Paradoxically it was after Salam s death that my dialogue with him became loud and clear. I was surrounded by people who knew him well. Luciano Bertocchi, Anne Gatti, his longest secretary and Hamende who was merciless with me whenever I dared to think something "new" for the ICTP. He would calmly point out that Salam had already proposed something similar years before. I also learned about how different people can be. I used to imagine my old prof Giambiagi vs. Both of them shared basically the same ideals but Giambiagi was the "rational", "sceptic" one, While Salam was buoyant, optimistic "as if" he was dismissing real obstacles "as if" he was in denial of possible risks, as if he was imbued with a supreme mission.

6 Salam s power of persuasion Was this optimism real or just a facade, a trick to hide his doubts and persuade better those he wanted participating in one of his projects. Remember John Ziman s quote He would take you by the arm and say I want you to go to Valparaiso tomorrow, on mission. and there were only three answers. it s against my religion to go to Valparaiso. I m very sorry but that day I must be in Singapore. Yes, I ll do it. What do we do? How do we start? What s to be done?"

7 Salam s religiosity and his missions I think his optimism was real and perhaps related to his religiosity. I think he felt he had a mission in his life, perhaps 3 missions: to empower his fellow scientists from developing countries to participate in and share the scientific endeavour that is the common task and heritage of all mankind to improve the status of modern science in the realm of Islam and provoke their renaissance. To understand better Allah s message by studying nature and making fundamental discoveries. The ahmadiyya is a relatively small (20 millions) and modern variant of Islam. The community is tightly knit and allows for a more personalised relation with God.

8 Salam s religiosity, the clergy Salam s practice of his religion was immersed in this strong social network but he didn t appreciate the intermediary clergy: "In most Islamic countries, a class of nearly illiterate men have, in practice, appropriated to themselves the status of a priestly class without possessing even a rudimentary knowledge of their great and tolerant religion". Furthermore although he read and often quoted the Coran, he also claimed that Islam (more than Christianity) asked the pious to understand God studying Nature.

9 Salam s religiosity, the authority and the rules This leads to a second characteristic of. He conversed and discussed a lot about theological issues with fellows scholars but felt little obliged to obey rules or commandments issued by an authority. M. Duff anecdote: A student comes to Salam asking whether he should include in a publication "these other calculations which do not quite seem to fit the picture" and Salam s memorable answer. "When all else fails, you can always tell the truth". This is quintessential Abdus. My point is that he had a deep sense of ethics. He dealt with big ideas, and acknowledge tremendous injustices (Cosmic Anger?) and put upon himself ambitious goals. But in the pursuit of them he would follow his own rules (or bend those imposed). The categorical imperative

10 ethics vs some narrow-mindedness This has been a real source of serious misunderstanding, I even dare to say it has played into prejudices well entrenched in our world. In a well oiled, developed society there are clear norms, rules. One just obeys them because in that way everything runs smoothly, though not necessarily justly, and one is not supposed to care about "unintended consequences". One can live "non-engagé" in Sartre s words. In the 3rd World, to begin with, things never run smoothly and in addition inequities can be so much more dramatic that a moral individual is obliged to act thinking about the consequences of both his acts and his non-acts. In a 3rd World country to be "non-engagé" is immoral. This is the complexity faced and dealt with and that I do not want to see simplified

11 The Nobel Prize An example of this confrontation between these two "moralities" is explicit in 2 articles by N. Dombey where the author accuses Salam of its "use of ICTP s resources to further his prospects of a Nobel Prize". Here are his weird examples of this "immoral" behaviour: the permanent invitation to Paul Dirac to visit the ICTP (he could have added the creation of the Dirac Medal allowing for a small violation of causality), The " Conference on the history and foundations of quantum mechanics" with (and I quote) "a conference banquet in honour of Dirac s 70th birthday... unrelated to the needs of developing countries... to fraternise with important physics dignitaries:... Dirac, Heisenberg, Wigner, Bethe... Casimir... and Peierls"

12 The appointment of Stig Lundqvist to organise the Condensed Matter Group in anticipation that 3 years later he would become a member of the Nobel Committee. The use of the ICTP official mail service to send personal letters requesting support for his candidacy. and Dombey adds The record of how Salam won his Nobel Prize does not suggest that he was particularly scrupulous in determining whether a particular activity was undertaken for the benefit of science in developing countries or to advance his own research in elementary particle theory.

13 Helping things to happen Of course Salam took advantage of the ICTP to further his chances. Stig Lundqvist...We discussed the scientific programme and above all the physics Salam was doing. The possibility of the Nobel Prize for him was coming close and, as I was a member of the Nobel Committee, these discussions became very complex. Salam should be praised for these efforts. I am totally sure that all the scientists from the developing countries got enormous benefit from his Nobel Prize

14 The intended consequences As a consequence of the Nobel the ICTP made a big leap forward. Both IAEA and Italy increased their funding and the number of persons x months visits began to grow by almost 10% per year. Furthermore Salam used the Nobel Prize as a platform, a pulpit from where to preach the importance of Science to governments in developing countries. During the next few years he visited 54 countries: 6 in Latin-American, 21 in Asia and 17 in Africa. He later convened all the other Nobel Prize winners from the South to create the TWAS.

15 The roaring years and the ICTP Now I go back to the 60 s to analyse his greatest accomplishment. From June 1960 (the Castelleto in Miramare, Trieste Meeting) where he met Paolo Budinich, the other great protagonist and until 1964, lies a period when Salam displayed an innate talent of persuasion with brilliance and demonstrated an intuitive sense of politics. He passed from Board of Governor s meetings to General Conferences of the IAEA using the corridors to seduce Delegates from other countries. At a certain moment he had the Scientific Advisory Committee + the representatives of the US, Western Europe, Soviet Union, Eastern Europe making declarations against his proposal with the Third World delegates unanimously in favour so that the West and East blocks decided to vote in favour or at most to abstain. Rabi who was not in favour was struck by the power and eloquence of intervention. But let us not be naive.

16 Salam and his network of fellow partners Salam was not a lonely genius. He had the talent of a consummate politician to keep up at any time hundredths of friendly contacts and colleagues in far away places whose help or assistance he could invoke if necessary. The period was particularly rich in new fellow partners, particularly from the Third World. Baghdadi from Maroc was one of them. His strong rebuke to those that considered Theoretical Physics unfit for the Third World Who allows you to deny three quarters of mankind the right to learn about the stars changed the framework of the argument.

17 Salam and his collaborators Salam was always bursting with ideas and projects and didn t bother with the details and/or bureaucracy, he needed collaborators and again he was very good at recruiting the best. He was a difficult mentor and leader because he pretended a lot and fast, Many of them testify that he could be rude at times but friendly, loyal and tolerant in the long run: the perfect mix to build long lasting loyalties. And the Italians: Budinich, Fonda, Ghirardi, Amati, Denardo... Luciano Bertocchi says: Salam delegated many responsibilities to me. His mode was: "This is what I want: find the way" What he required from managers was not to bend the rules: it was to find within the rules the way to realise what he had in mind... for 20 years we were collaborating closely and also fighting each other but the fights always ended in mutual understanding

18 filling the details/building rules and norms: After the ICTP, continued on his role of promoter/creator. He was behind the ICGEB the Int. Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (1994-):flourishing ICS The Int. Centre for Science and High Technology ( ):derailed TWAS 1983: flourishing and aspire for 20 Centers like the ICTP disseminated around the world: F. Quevedo, in construction Periodically Bertocchi was dealing with some bad fluctuations of the Italian contribution The money was coming from a chapter in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy earmarked as "Funds for International Cooperation" During the periodic italian financial crisis the funding suffered serious delays.

19 Institutionalization of the ICTP to institutionalize: to establish (something, typically a practice or activity) as a convention or norm in an organization or culture. Was it necessary? Salam could run the institute with just his charisma. But the ICTP was populated by normal people who need rules and rules that are built by other normal people through consensus. At ICTP that was the task of his collaborators: Seif, Yu Lu, Narasimhan, the italians. After his death I became another collaborator. Normal people committed to the same goal.

20 The ICTP after Let me give you a few examples of the normal tasks I had to take care from : The stabilisation of the Italian budget contribution thanks to a key idea of our Administrative Secretary Gianfranco Guerriero. The upgrading of the italian contribution (with a bonus). The budget went from 6.5 M U$S to 11.5 M U$S The transfer from IAEA to UNESCO The writing of the "Staff Rules and Regulations" with endless discussions with the staff and also UNESCO and the IAEA. It was not pleasant but I was happy because it meant completing Salam s construction.

21 The ICTP after new directions in Weather and Climate, Statistical Physics, Discrete Mathematics, Ecological Economics,... the ICTP renaming in "The ICTP" These tasks require normal people and fortunately normal people abound. But they should be committed. With hindsight we should be cautious. I cannot go into details but in at least 2 occasions the ICTP risked derailing, both during the process of nomination of a new director. The ICS did derail.

22 Conclusions and Thanks to Someone For the future I suggest that the community of physicists who care about the ICTP remain attentive at the moments of nomination of a new director. They should minimally demand that the director be a theoretical physicist who shares the goals of and the ICTP. If she/he doesn t have experience in administration she/he should simply declare willingness to learn. As I said: Normal people are many Exceptional people are rare Let us thank Someone for ABDUS SALAM