Asghar Qadir

Asghar Qadir

Prof. Dr. Asghar Qadir in One Day Conference on Gravitation at PU, Lahore, organised by Prof. Dr. Muhammad Sharif in his honour on 17 December 2011
Born (1946-07-23) 23 July 1946
Shimla, British Indian Empire (present-day Himachal Pradesh, India)
Residence Rawalpindi, Punjab province
Citizenship Pakistan
Nationality Pakistani
Fields Mathematics
Institutions National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)
Quaid-i-Azam University (Qau)
International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM)
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)
University of Texas at Austin (UT)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC)
Alma mater University of London
Imperial College London
Doctoral advisor Roger Penrose
Other academic advisors Oliver Penrose
Known for His work on the mathematical sciences, relativity, general relativity, introduction to general relativity, cosmology
Notable awards Hilal-i-Imtiaz (2008)
Sitara-i-Imtiaz (1999)
Fulbright Award (1979)
Notes
A close friend of physicists Riazuddin and student of Dr. Roger Penrose

Asghar Qadir (Urdu: اصغر قادر; 23 July 1946), HI, SI, FPAS, is a Pakistani mathematician and a prominent cosmologist, specialised in mathematical physics and physical cosmology. He is considered as one of the top mathematicians in Pakistan. He is the Chairman of the Mathematics Department, and the director of School of Natural Sciences (SNS) at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST).[1]

He is a distinguished student of English mathematical physicist Dr. Roger Penrose. He made extraordinary efforts and published numerous papers in the fields of Mathematical physics, Cosmology and Mathematics. Qadir has made important and significant contributions to the fields of differential equations, theoretical cosmology and the mathematical physics. He has written and edited a number of books, mainly focusing on mathematical sciences and mathematical physics.

Qadir is author of the book "Relativity: An Introduction to the Special Theory" which has been translated in several different languages and is widely read by science students in colleges throughout Asia. He has attended more than 100 International and National Conferences and Seminars in the fields of Mathematics, Physics, Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science. He has supervised two Master of science programs, twenty-nine M. Phil, twelve PhDs and two-joint PhD students during his career. He has published more than 140 research papers. He is the author of 12 books, 22 research level articles, 7 teaching journal papers, 32 popular articles, and 48 research preprints. He is noted for his work in mathematics and mathematical physics, in particular his contributions to general relativity and cosmology.

Biography

Asghar Qadir was born in Simla (now Shimla) of British Indian Empire in 1946 to a middle-class family.[2] After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Qadir's family migrated to Lahore, West Pakistan, where they were settled in a house provided by the Government of Pakistan. In 1963, Qadir travelled to United Kingdom on a Commonwealth scholarship which he applied and qualified for. In 1963, Qadir attended the University of London and received his BSc(Hons) in Mathematics from the University of London in 1967 under the direction of mathematician Professor Oliver Penrose.[2]

The same year, he became an A.R.S.C and also obtained his BS in Physics and DIC in Mathematics.[2] In 1969, Qadir pursued his MSc in Mathematics, followed by PhD in Mathematical physics and Theory of relativity with the specialisation in Twistor theory, under the supervision of Dr. Roger Penrose in 1971.[3] He pioneered the mathematical contributions to the development of Special relativity and the twistor theory, which is the approach to the problems of fundamental physics pioneered by Roger Penrose.[3]

Rutherford High Energy Laboratory

Qadir became a research associate and fellow at the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory (it is now known as Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)) where he continued his research in the field of advanced computational mathematics.[4] There, he worked in a complex mathematical applications arise in the theory of nuclear fission at the ISIS neutron source – a neutron scattering facility that mathematically studies the structure and behaviour of nuclear materials in a fission process.[4] However, in early 1971, he came back to Pakistan and joined Quaid-e-Azam University as a research associate.[2] In 1982, he became associate professor and then subsequently became a chairman of the department of mathematics in 1986.[2]

Academic career

While in the Pakistan, in the midst of the Indo-Pak War of 1971, Qadir was serving as a senior research associate at the University of Islamabad. After the Multan meeting, held on 20 January 1972, Qadir's colleagues and peers had quietly disappeared from campus.[5] Qadir's close friend Riazuddin invited by him to Nilore to continue and carry out his advanced research at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). As an eminent and noted mathematician, Dr. Qadir was given task to calculate critical mass and the physics cross section calculations.[6] Qadir, at first, adopted the Monte Carlo method for evaluating complicated mathematical integrals that arise in the theory of nuclear chain reactions.[7] The mathematical calculations were brought up to Dr. Riazuddin, but Dr. Riazuddin already adopted the method earlier. Despite of Riazuddin's and his calculations, Dr. Qadir then approached onto a better method to develop the fission device.

He then suggested to adopt the Metropolis–Hastings algorithm using the Monte Carlo integration that arise in the theory of nuclear fusion and thermonuclear fission that can improve the intensity and frequency of the highly compressed shock waves, using the uranium reflector in a nuclear device.[8] Then, Qadir opted the Pati–Salam model for solving the fission problem and suggested that the Salam's model can be used to developed an effective boosted fissionable reflector in a device.[9] Qadir then continued to developed mathematical models and to evaluate critical mass problems. Riazuddin introduced Qadir to Salam where Salam encourage Qadir to research in mathematical physics in more depth. Under Riazuddin and Salam, Qadir specialised in the theory of Special relativity, mathematics of particle physics, and mathematical economics.

In 1976, Qadir joined Quaid-e-Azam University's Department of Mathematics as an associate professor.[2] In 1983, Qadir became Chairman of the Department of Mathematics at the Quaid-i-Azam University.[2] In 1986, Riazuddin invited Qadir to Trieste, Italy to join International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) where he carried out his research in special and general theory of relativity. At ICTP, he taught the advanced course of differential equations, Special functions, Upper and lower bounds on Entropy and the Number Theory.[2] In 1988, after researching at ICTP under Abdus Salam, Qadir re-joined Qau and became full professor of Mathematics.[2]

In 1989, Qadir published a book on Special relativity through World Scientific. Qadir provided simple representation of details of calculations and its extension into theory of motion. Through his text book, Qadir briefly discussed and introduced the Special Relativity for extension into General Relativity.[10]

In 1993, he was personally asked by the President, Ghulam Ishaq Khan (late), to teach in the then newly founded research institute at Topi, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. In 1994, he went to Saudi Arabia where he visited his lifelong friend Dr. Riazuddin where, on his friend's recommendation, joined King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals where he served as a Chairman of Department of Mathematics and Statistics.[11]

In 1998, Qadir came back to Pakistan and re-joined Quaid-e-Azam University as an Associate professor of Mathematics.[6] The same year, Qadir joined the PAEC and became director-general of the Mathematical Physics Group where he was an instrumental for leading the mathematical studies in the foundation of mathematical physics.[6] Qadir became involved in a team preparing the nuclear device in Chagai and eye-witnessed the country's first nuclear tests (See Chagai-I and Chagai-II) where he was the director of the team leading the mathematical calculations to determine the yield.[6] As part of his contribution, the Government of Pakistan conferred Qadir with civilian award, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, and earned the national fame.[6] In 1999, Qadir became the Dean of Faculty of Natural Sciences which he continued till 2000.[2] In 2004, he served as the head of the Department of Mathematics at the Quaid-e-Azam University. Recently, he moved to Rawalpindi and joined National University of Sciences and Technology as the director of Center for Advanced Mathematics and Physics.

Awards and honours

Fellowships and memberships

Books

Conference papers

Research papers

See also

References

  1. ↑ CAMP, Center for Advanced Mathematics and Physics (16 June 2010). "Asghar Qadir". National University of Sciences and Technology University Press. National University of Sciences and Technology. Retrieved 2009. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (PAS), Pakistan Academy of Sciences (d). "Asghar Qadir". Pakistan Academy of Sciences. Pakistan Academy of Sciences press. Archived from the original on 30 May 2009. Retrieved 2009. Check date values in: |access-date=, |date= (help)
  3. 1 2 "Asghar Qadir – MIT". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology. Retrieved 2009. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  4. 1 2 "Asghar Qadir – CCIS". CCIS. Computational Complexities, Innovations and Solutions (CCIC). Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 2009. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. ↑ Long Road to Chagai, Story of Mathematician, pp60, Shahidur Rahman
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Long Road to Chagai, A Story of Mathematician, pp.61, Shahidur Rehman
  7. ↑ Integration of Function Satisfying a Second Order Differential Equation, Asghar Qadir, Mathematics Mechanics (The Nucleus (journal), Vol:55 pp:802, (1973)
  8. ↑ "Diffraction of planetary waves by two parallel semi-infinite plates, Asghar Qadir, Munir Ahmad Rashid, Mathematics Mechanics (The Nucleus (journal), Vol:23 pp:pp:339-348 , (1977)
  9. ↑ Equivalence of the theories of reciprocity and general relativity, Asghar Qadir,Journal of Theoretical Physics, Vol: 15(1976) pp. 25–30
  10. ↑ Qadir, Asghar (1989). "Relativity: An introduction to the Special Theory". World scientific. Retrieved 2011. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  11. ↑ "Fellows of the Academy". Pakistan Academy of Sciences.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.