Pervez Hoodbhoy

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Pervez Hoodbhoy

Born July 11, 1950 (1950-07-11) (age 59)
Karachi, Pakistan
Residence Islamabad, Pakistan
Nationality Pakistani
Fields Nuclear Physics
Institutions Quaid-e-Azam University
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Known for His work on the Parton distribution functions, Field theory (mathematics)
Field Theory (Physics)
Phenomenology (particle physics)
supersymmetry
Notable awards UNESCO Kalinga Prize (2003)
Fulbright Award (1998-99)
Faiz Ahmed Faiz Award (1990)
Abdus Salam Award for Mathematics (1984)
Baker Award for Electronics (1968)

Dr. Prof. Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy (Urdu: پرویز ہودبھائی) (born 11 July 1950) is a well-known Pakistani nuclear physicist and political-defence analyst. He is the Professor of High Energy Physics, and the head of the Physics Department[1] at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He graduated and also received 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 environmental 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 women's rights, education, environmental issues, philosophy, and modern thought. He is a staunch opponent of militant Islam in Pakistan and an advocate for democracy in the country.[1]. Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy is a strong supporter for peaceful use of nuclear technology, non-nuclear proliferation, and nuclear disarmament, criticizing both Pakistan's and India's nuclear weapon program in many national and international forums.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Hoodbhoy gained his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering, followed by M.S. in Solid-State Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973. He went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics in 1978 from the same institution. Later, he remained a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Washington. He has been a faculty member at the Quaid-e-Azam University since 1973. He is engaged in research on Quantum field theory, Particle Phenomenology, and Supersymmetry in Particle physics. He is a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, the University of Maryland, College Park, and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He also occasionally lectures at various American and European research institutions. He is a sponsor of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists .[2] He also serves on the International Advisory Council of the Brookings Doha Center.

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.[3] He is author of Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality, that has been translated into 5 languages. 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 Nuclear Physicist in Pakistan.

On 14 April 2001 Dr. Hoodbhoy was awarded Sitara-e-Imtiaz from the former President of Pakistan, General (r). Pervaiz Musharraf, which he refused to accept. His refusal to accept the award prompted The Friday Times to interview him. In an interview he said:

"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".[4]

[edit] Documentary films

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.[5] Documentaries of his are heavily emphasized on the issues of education, public health and scientific revolution in Pakistan.

In his documentaries, Dr. Hoodbhoy heavily criticized Pakistan and India's nuclear weapon program. He also pointed out the seriousness of the Talibanization in Pakistan and its immediate effects on the 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 reforms in Afghanistan's social and public sector instead the insurgency and corruption grew which also destabilized Pakistan's western front.

[edit] Filmography

  • Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India.(2004)
  • The Bell Tolls for Planet Earth (2003)
  • Pakistan and India Under the Nuclear Shadow. (2001)

[edit] Pervez Hoodbhoy versus Higher Education Commission (HEC)

Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy began criticizing the performance of HEC after the (forced) resignation of noted research scientist, Dr. Atta ur Rahman. In his article, he said "It is absolutely incorrect that HEC has spent or is spending RS. 400 million on the purchase of a Van de Graaf Accelerator. HEC is not purchasing any equipment!"[6]. He also said: "HEC is allocating enormous sums for research. But these are being thrown at half-baked proposals that will add nothing of value to science in Pakistan."

Dr. Hoodbhoy also believes that expensive scientific equipment, bought for research, often ends up locked away in campuses. He deeply criticized HEC for spending too much money on the scientific equipments rather than spending money on training of Pakistan's scientists. He also included the 5 MeV tandem Van de Graaf accelerator to be housed at the Riazuddin National Center for Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University. "They are useless for cutting edge science research today. They are, at best, museum pieces." He also said that "HEC should stop all useless, sometimes fraudulent, research projects and stop encouraging the award of worthless PhD's".[7] . He also wrote in his article "Pelletron accelerator was installed last month by a team of Americans from the National Electrostatics Corporation that flew in from Wisconsin. But now that it is there and fully operational, nobody – including the current director – has the slightest idea of what research to do with it".

"Its original proponents are curiously lacking in enthusiasm and are quietly seeking to distance themselves from the project."[8] In his article, Dr. Hoodbhoy claimed that basic academic values are missing, and there is casual acceptance of abysmal ethical behavior—cheating, lying, and plagiarism by faculty and students. Resources are wasted on an epic scale. And, the HEC whirlwind is making all of these problems worse. He also advised the HEC that it should spend more money to motivate students, trained more teachers and establish more high-standard universities rather than heavily funding money on Particle Accelerators.

[edit] Awards and honours

He is also the recipient of:

[edit] Publications

[edit] Books

[edit] Scientific papers and articles

  • Two-Photon Effects in Lepton-AntiLepton Pair Photoproduction from a Nucleon Target using Real Photons, Authors: Pervez Hoodbhoy, Phys.Rev. D73 (2006) 054027
  • Probing Quark Distribution Amplitudes Through Generalized Parton Distributions at Large Momentum Transfer, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Xiangdong Ji, Feng Yuan, Phys.Rev.Lett. 92 (2004) 012003
  • Explicit Proof that Electroproduction of Transversely Polarized Vector Mesons Vanishes in Perturbative QCD, Pervez Hoodbhoy (University of Maryland and Quaid-e-Azam University), Phys.Rev. D65 (2002) 077501
  • Does the Gluon Spin Contribute in A Gauge Invariant Way to Nucleon Spin? Pervez Hoodbhoy, Xiangdong Ji, Phys.Rev. D60 (1999) 114042
  • Nucleon-Quarkonium Elastic Scattering and the Gluon Contribution to Nucleon Spin, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Phys.Rev.Lett. 82 (1999) 4985-4987
  • Implications of Color Gauge Symmetry For Nucleon Spin Structure, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Xiangdong Ji, Wei Lu, Phys.Rev. D59 (1999) 074010
  • Quark Orbital-Angular-Momentum Distribution in the Nucleon, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Xiangdong Ji, Wei Lu, Phys.Rev. D59 (1999) 014013
  • The Spin Structure of the Nucleon in the Asymptotic Limit, Ji, J. Tang (MIT), P. Hoodbhoy (Quaid-e-Azam, Pakistan), Phys.Rev.Lett. 76 (1996) 740-743
  • Helicity-Flip Off-Forward Parton Distributions of the Nucleon, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Xiangdong Ji, Phys.Rev. D58 (1998) 054006
  • Wavefunction corrections and off-forward gluon distributions in diffractive J/psi electroproduction, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Phys.Rev. D56 (1997) 388-393
  • Relativistic and Binding Energy Corrections to Direct Photon Production In Upsilon Decay, Mohammad Ali Yusuf, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Phys.Rev. D54 (1996) 3345-3349
  • Beyond The Colour-Singlet Model For Inelastic J_psi Photoproduction, H. Khan, P. Hoodbhoy, Phys. Lett. B382 (1996) 189
  • The Spin Structure of the Nucleon in the Asymptotic Limit, X. Ji, J. Tang (MIT), P. Hoodbhoy (Quaid-e-Azam, Pakistan), Phys.Rev.Lett. 76 (1996) 740-743
  • Novel approach to decays, gluon distributions, and fragmentation functions of heavy quarkonia, Rafia Ali, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Phys.Rev. D51 (1995) 2302-2310
  • Quark fragmentation functions in a diquark model for proton and $\Lambda$ hyperon production, Muhammad Nzar, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Phys.Rev. D51 (1995) 32-36
  • Systematic gauge invariant approach to heavy quarkonium decays, Hafsa Khan, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Phys.Rev. D53 (1996) 2534-2540
  • Twist-Four Distributions in a Transversely-Polarized Nucleon and the Drell-Yan Process, Pevrez Hoodbhoy, Xiangdong Xi, Phys.Rev. D50 (1994) 4429-4435

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Professor and Chairman Hoodbhoy
  2. ^ CGPACS (2006) 15th Annual Margolis Lecture with Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy. The Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies. University of California, Irvine. 12 May. Retrieved on 22 May 2008
  3. ^ Hoodbhoy (1998) Talk by Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy on nuclear tests in the Indian subcontinent. The Alliance, Pakistan Students Society at MIT, and the MIT Program In Science, Technology, and Society. 12 May. Retrieved on 22 May 2008
  4. ^ http://www.chowk.com/articles/5034
  5. ^ CGPACS (2006) Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India. The Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies. University of California, Irvine. 11 May. Retrieved on 22 May 2008
  6. ^ http://antisystemic.org/satribune/www.satribune.com/archives/200507/P1_hec2.htm
  7. ^ http://www.chowk.com/articles/9376
  8. ^ http://www.chowk.com/articles/13958

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervez_Hoodbhoy"