Introduction

Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy was born on 11 July 1950. He did his O and A-Level exams in Karachi. During his college studies, Hoodbhoy was tutored by Nobel Laureate in Physics Professor Abdus Salam in Mathematics and

Pervez Hoodbhoy


Professional Achievements

Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy was born on 11 July 1950. He did his O and A-Level exams in Karachi. During his college studies, Hoodbhoy was tutored by Nobel Laureate in Physics Professor Abdus Salam in Mathematics and Physics. Hoodbhoy showed great interest in Electronics and Mathematics, and his love for science led him to travel to United States to pursue his education. In United States, Hoodbhoy studied for his double major and gained his double Bachelor of Sciences in Mathematics and Electrical engineering, followed by Master (MS) in Solid-State Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973.

He went on to obtain a DPhil in Nuclear Physics in 1978 from the same institution. During his doctoral studies, Hoodbhoy had worked with numerous Manhattan Project scientists (who had worked closely in the development of a first implosion device— Fat Man atom bomb in the 1940s) in the field of nuclear physics.

Later, he remained a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Washington. Hoodbhoy, joined the Institute of Physics, later Department of Physics, as professor of Physics, since 1973. He spent his research career extensively on Quantum field theory, Particle Phenomenology, and Super-symmetry in the area of Particle physics.

He graduated and also received a PhD from MIT and continues to do research in Particle physics. He received the Baker Award for Electronics in 1968 and the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics in 1984. He has authored various scientific research papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Hoodbhoy is also a prominent environmentalist and social activist and regularly writes on a wide range of social, cultural and environmental issues. He is the chairman of Mashal, a non-profit organization which publishes Urdu books on feminism, education, environmental issues, philosophy, and modern thought.

Hoodbhoy currently teaches at Lahore University of Management Sciences, and is a visiting professor of Mathematics at the Carnegie Mellon University, and visiting professor of physics at both University of Maryland at College Park, and remains a senior visiting scientist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He also occasionally lectures on various topics in Mathematics and Physics in the American and European research institutions. Hoodbhoy is a prominent sponsor of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, representing the Pakistan's delegation. He is also a senior member of Pakistan Atomic Scientists Federation (PASF).

Hoodbhoy also serves on the International Advisory Council of the Brookings Doha Center. After receiving his doctorate in physics, Hoodbhoy, at MIT, met with the renowned scientists Dr. Abdus Salam and Riazuddin where Salam gave his lectures on particle physics. Hoodbhoy then traveled to Trieste where he became a research associate at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). At ICTP, Hoodbhoy began his research in particle physics that was supervised by Professor Salam. In 1999, Hoodbhoy with Ishfaq Ahmad and Riazuddin, played a major and influential role in the establishment of National Centre of Physics (NCP). With its establishment, Hoodbhoy became one of the earliest academic scientists who joined the NCP at its inception.

Apart from his specialist field of research, Hoodbhoy extensively writes and speaks on general topics ranging from science in Islam to education and nuclear disarmament issues around the world. He is author of Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality that has been translated into five languages. In his book, Hoodbhoy outline the history of Pakistan, implications of theocracy and military dictatorships in Pakistan, and the abstract textbook system in education system of Pakistan. His articles on various issues related to science and social issues are often published in international media.

Nowadays, Dr. Pervez A. Hoodbhoy is considered one of the prominent and renowned scientists, who had published his work on every aspect of life. His publications are repeatedly published in both technical and non-technical papers. He widely writes about the role and modernization of Pakistan Armed Forces, particularly the defence budget spending by the Government of Pakistan on Pakistan Armed Forces. While he is critical of the role of Pakistan Armed Forces in politics, Hoodbhoy gives much criticism to the Pakistan Army for imposing unlawful Martial Law. He heavily criticizes the militant and fundamental Islam, while avidly supporting Pakistan Armed Forces to initiate their operations against the Islamic extremism in his country. He was among the first activists who raised their support for the Pakistan Armed Forces Operation Black Thunderstorm, as part of conflict in Pakistan.

Hoodbhoy remains a leading vocal critic of nuclear weapons, and especially of the on-going nuclear weapons expansion in South Asia. He openly criticizes the United States' foreign aide to expand the Indian nuclear programme, and held India responsible for Pakistan's symetric nuclear weapons programme as part of Pakistan's self credible deterrence after the country was dismembered in 1971 by India. While, he agreed that Pakistan's nuclear deterrence programme had protected and avoided Pakistan in numerous war threatening situations with India and the present relations with the United States, He remains staunch supporter for Pakistan's nuclear energy programme exclusively devoted for the industrial and economical use and human welfare.

According to Hoodbhoy, Pakistan puts tremendous and extreme science efforts to developed its deterrence programme which was developed in extreme secrecy under Munir Ahmad Khan. If the same finance and efforts are used on economical and technological progress, Pakistan would be equivalent to that of either Japan or South Korea. In his recent article, Hoddbhoy gave a vehement and vigorous criticism to India's 1974 nuclear test (Smiling Buddha) and the second nuclear tests (Operation Shakti) in 1998. According to Hoodbhoy, Indian nuclear tests forced and pushed Pakistan to jump into nuclear arena in 1974, and again in 1998, after war-threatening statements were made by Indian government to Pakistan.

Hoodbhoy made important contributions in physics, particularly in particle physics. Many of the his lectures are shown in the Urduphysics.com, sponsored by National Center for Physics. He lectures in Newtonian Mechanics, Einsteinian Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Vibration and Waves, among others. At NCP, Hoodbhoy conducted his research on different aspects of particle physics, and pioneered his studies in modern physics and its extension to mathematical and nuclear physics. In 2006, Hoodbhoy published his brief mathematical description on Generalized Parton Distributions or GDP.

In 2007, Hoodbhoy re-published the work of Jens Lyng Peterson the on Maldacena conjecture where he contributed mathematically on the theory. A Maldacena conjecture is a conjectured equivalence between a string theory and gravity defined on one space, and a quantum field theory without gravity defined by one or less dimension. In the same year, he also re-published the work Edward Witten on Anti de Sitter space and its extension to the field of Holography. While, the paper was published experimentally in 1998 by Witten, Hoodbhoy provided the brief mathematical proofs and description to understand, logically, the subject of Sitter space— a scalar curvature in general theory of relativity.

On 14 April 2001, it was announced that Dr. Hoodbhoy would be receiving Sitara-i-Imtiaz from the former president, General (retired) Pervaiz Musharraf which he refused to accept. His refusal prompted the Friday Times to interview him.

I am reasonably [satisfied] with my (scientific) work... I do not think it is earth-shaking or... that it deserves any kind of [award]. On the other hand, receiving an [award] – even if it is a high national award – would give me absolutely no sense of achievement or satisfaction... because it carries no credibility or prestige in professional circles. Such things do not indicate that you have done good work in your field. Therefore I decided to refuse the award —Pervez Hoodbhoy, issued the statement on The Friday Times.

He produced a 13-part documentary series in Urdu for Pakistan Television on critical issues in education, and two series aimed at popularizing science. In 2004, he made a documentary film 'Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India' along with Dr. Zia Mian ‘The Centre for Global Peace and Conflict Studies’ University of California, Irvine. Documentaries of his carry heavy emphasis on the issues of education, public health and scientific revolution in Pakistan.

In his documentaries, Dr. Hoodbhoy heavily criticized Pakistan and India's nuclear weapons program. He also pointed out the seriousness of the Talibanization in Pakistan and its immediate effects on South Asia. His documentaries also pointed out that Americans and NATO forces in Afghanistan didn't help the Afghan people's life and there was no reform in Afghanistan's social and public sector instead the insurgency and corruption grew, which also destabilized Pakistan's western front.