Ishfaq Ahmad (3 November 1930 – 18 January 2018) SI, HI, NI, FPAS, was a Pakistani nuclear physicist, emeritus professor of high-energy physics at the National Centre for Physics, and former science advisor to the Government of Pakistan. A versatile theoretical physicist, Ahmad made significant contributions in the theoretical development of the applications and concepts involving the particle physics, and its relative extension to the quantum electrodynamics, while working as senior research scientist at the CERN in the 1960s and 1970s. Joining the PAEC in the late 1950s, Ahmad served as the director of the Nuclear Physics Division at the secret Pinstech Institute which developed the first designs of atomic bombs, a clandestine project during the post-1971 war. There, he played an influential role in leading the physics and mathematical calculations in the critical mass of the weapons, and did theoretical work on the implosion method used in the weapons. Since the 1960s and onwards, he was a high-ranking official at the IAEA as part of the Pakistan Government's official mission, working to make the peaceful use of nuclear power for the industrial development. Having chaired the PAEC from 1991 until 2001, he was affiliated with the Pakistan Government as a science adviser to the prime minister on strategic and scientific programs, with the status of Minister of State. A vehement supporter for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, he earned public and international fame in May 1998 when he oversaw and directed PAEC to perform country's first public atomic tests (see Chagai-I and Chagai-II) in a secret weapon-testing laboratories in Balochistan Province of Pakistan. He died on 18 January 2018, aged 87 in Lahore.
Biography
Early life and education Ahmad was born in Gurdaspur, Punjab in India on 3 November 1930 into a Kakazai family that had long been settled in Punjab. Ahmad obtained his early education in Jalandhar, later schooling in Lyallpur, and Lahore before enrolling in the Punjab University in Lahore to study Physics, and earned his undergraduate, BSc degree, in Physics in 1949. After entering in the post graduate school at the Punjab University, Ahmad obtained his MSc degree, in 1951, after submitting his master's thesis on nuclear physics, which was supervised by R. M. Chaudhry. With his master's degree, he obtained Honours diploma and secured a gold medallion for the recognition of his work in physics. He taught various undergraduate physics laboratory courses at the Government College University while working on fundamental concepts in nuclear physics with his university mentor. In 1954, he won the scholarship under the Colombo Plan fellowship program and went to Quebec, Canada for his doctorate studies. Ahmad attended the doctorate school at the Université de Montréal and did a two-year-long course in Particle physics and engaged his research on theoretical physics. In 1959, Ahmad obtained D.Sc. in physics after submitting his doctoral works on concepts on advancing on particle physics. His theses were written in fluent French and English language, and he reluctantly returned to Pakistan under the terms of Colombo Plan contract. His DSc theses were supervised by Pierre Demers and covered a wide range of research in the study of elementary particles by using the deployment of special fine grain nuclear emulsion (AgBr). During his long doctoral studies, Ahmad studied nuclear reaction at the Montreal Laboratory with supervisors and scientists role in the Manhattan Project. Upon his return to Pakistan, he joined the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) as a senior scientist.
Academia and CERN In 1952, Ahmad served as a visiting professor of mathematics at the Government College University, before accepting the professorship of mathematics at the University of Paris in 1959. He engaged his research in theoretical physics and obtained a one-year-long research fellowship at the Niels Bohr Institute for Theoretical Physics. In 1962–64, he accepted the professorship in physics at the University of Montreal and the University of Ottawa. In Ottawa, he carried out pioneering research in particle resonance and published important publications in theoretical physics. Ahmad also performed experiments on nuclear physics at the Meuse Underground Laboratories of France. In 1965, Ahmad published a research report on absorption of Pion's cross sections and the range of complex atom's energy of the pion particle. He recalled his Cern experience in 1994:
In 1994, I visited CERN as chairman of PAEC. The visit took place on the initiative of Pakistani (theoretical) physicist Ahmed Ali, who works at DESY. It brought back good memories of my earlier visits, which date back to 1962 when I came to CERN as a young post-doctoral fellow working at the University Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen (now the Niels Bohr Institute) to perform a nuclear emulsion experiment. During my visit in 1994, I was fascinated to see the exciting developments in physics that were taking place at CERN, and I had only one wish— that my own country, Pakistan— should somehow become involved in scientific collaboration with CERN, and that our physicists and engineers could also become part of the most advanced, challenging and rewarding scientific endeavour: the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the 1990s, Ahmad played a pivotal role in building closer relations with the CERN, and lobbied tirelessly for PAEC to reach an agreement with CERN. In 1997, Ahmad, as chair of PAEC, signed an agreement with CERN in the up gradation of the CMS detector and the financial contribution worth one million SFr for the construction of eight magnetic rings for the detector. This was followed by in 1998, Ishfaq Ahmad, as PAEC chairman, reached another contract with CERN. The signing of the agreement was followed by the state visit of CERN's director Christopher Llewellyn Smith with whom Ahmad signed a collaborative agreement that provided an entry point for Pakistani's scientist (respectively PAEC) into the CMS collaboration. In 2000, another treaty between PAEC and CERN was signed that covered the construction of the resistive plate chambers required for the CMS muon system. In Press Conference with Luciano Maiani, Ahmad quoted: "I very much hope and wish that these developments may eventually lead to Pakistan becoming an associate member of CERN."
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
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