Spirit of Abdus Salam Award Winners 2017

Imrana Ashraf Zahid
Professor Zahid is well known at ICTP and in the world of optics. In addition to being the first woman in Pakistan to earn a PhD in quantum optics, in 2004 she became one of the first women to win the ICO/ICTP Prize for her significant scientific contributions to optics and photonics. She has been a regular tutor at the annual Winter College on Optics, providing, at her own initiative, after-hours tutorials to any participants who found themselves struggling to follow the material presented in lectures. In Pakistan, she has promoted the education of young women by organizing hands-on, scientific activities.

Daniel Gómez
Professor Gómez has been a long-time ICTP Associate and actively promotes learning and scientific collaboration in his home country, Argentina. He is a committed, passionate teacher, and many of his students are now active and successful researchers themselves. One former student, Pablo Mininni, won the ICTP Prize in 2012. Professor Gómez has participated in and directed many of ICTP’s conferences on plasma physics. In addition, he has been actively involved in the recording of physics lectures at the University of Buenos Aires, significantly expanding the reach of physics learning in Spanish-speaking countries throughout the world.

Giancarlo Ghirardi
Professor Ghirardi has been associated with ICTP for many years, as a researcher, a professor, and as the head of its Associate and Federation Schemes, which provides important opportunities for scientists from developing countries to visit Trieste and upgrade their research skills with other scientists from around the world. He attended the first-ever international seminar in theoretical physics in Trieste that was organized by ICTP co-founders Paolo Budinich and Abdus Salam in the early 1960s, and has been a steady presence ta the centre ever since. Professor Ghirardi is well known for his contributions to the foundations of quantum mechanics, as well as  for his research, teaching and efforts to promote and develop physics.

Muhammad Iqbal
Mr. Iqbal is recognised by many ICTP visitors as the competent, friendly multimedia assistant always present in the Budinich Lecture Hall to ensure that ICTP’s presentation equipment—including microphones and overhead projections—functions smoothly during ICTP’s numerous conferences. He first came to ICTP in 1993 to help take care of Abdus Salam, whose health was rapidly deteriorating at the time. Although he has recently retired, Mr. Iqbal made a lasting, smiling impression on all who interacted with him, encouraging cooperation and friendship amongst people of all nationalities and religions.