Abdus Salam, born in rural Pakistan, was one of nine siblings. Studying by candlelight, at the age of nine, he was the highest-scoring pupil in the nation's only standard examination. He was fifteen when he saw an electric light bulb for the first time.

One year later, at sixteen, he had his first national scientific publication in which he simplified theorems of the legendary mathematician Ramanujan. By his late twenties, Salam was already a recognized prodigy in the world of physics, and at thirty-one narrowly missed getting the Nobel Prize.

To mitigate the intellectual isolation of poor-world scientists, at the age of thirty-five, Salam founded the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. The center is now named after him and has received over 100,000 visiting scientists from developing countries.

At fifty-three, Salam was awarded the Nobel Prize for unifying two of the four fundamental forces of nature, a groundbreaking achievement that fulfilled Einstein's dream of unity. Salam is ranked as one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century.

Receiving the 1979 Nobel Prize
for Physics from the King of Sweden