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Pervez Hoodbhoy

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Pervez Hoodbhoy
Born (1950-07-11) July 11, 1950 (age 73)
Karachi, Sindh
NationalityPakistani
CitizenshipPakistan
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Known forHis work on the Parton distribution functions, Field theory (mathematics)
Field Theory (Physics)
Phenomenology (particle physics)
supersymmetry
AwardsUNESCO Kalinga Prize (2003)
Fulbright Award (1998-99)
Faiz Ahmed Faiz Award (1990)
Abdus Salam Award (1984)
Baker Award for Electronics (1968)
Scientific career
FieldsNuclear Physics
InstitutionsQuaid-e-Azam University

Dr. Prof. Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy (Urdu: پرویز ہودبھائی) (born 11 July 1950) is a well-known Pakistani nuclear physicist, essayist and political-defence analyst. He is the professor of nuclear and high-energy physics, and the head of the Physics Department 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[1], 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 feminism, education, environmental issues, philosophy, and modern thought. Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy is a strong supporter for peaceful use of nuclear technology, non-nuclear proliferation, and nuclear disarmament, criticizing the United States, Israeli, Pakistan's and India's nuclear weapon program in many national and international forums.

Biography

Hoodbhoy did O and A-Level from Karachi, Sindh. While in Pakistan 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 Bachelor of Sciences 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. During his doctoral studies, Hoodbhoy had worked with numerous Manhattan Project scientists (who had worked closely in the development of a atomic bomb in 1940s) to the field of nuclear physics[2]. 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 .[3] 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.[4] 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, General (retired) Pervaiz Musharraf, which he refused to accept. His refusal to accept the award 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".[5]

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.[6] 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.

Filmography

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

Pervez Hoodbhoy on Higher Education Commission (HEC)

Hoodbhoy was a harsh critic of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) while it was headed by Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman. This led to numerous print and television media debates.

The administrative competency of HEC was called into question. The achievements of the HEC initiative which involved the development, staffing and management of universities, with the aim of attracting foreign academics to Pakistan, were described as ‘dismal’. In the case of UESTP-France, in Karachi, out of an expected faculty strength of between 450 to 600, no French faculty or administrative staff actually arrived.

The data used to support the positive appraisal of HEC’s activities was questioned in a series of communications between Hoodbhoy and HEC Chairman Atta-Ur-Rehman. It was claimed by the latter that in mathematics, Pakistani authors received 20% more citations than the worldwide average. Hoodbhoy questioned this on several grounds including the number of self-citations these publications received and said that this was a crucial aspect that the HEC left out of its interpretation.

Criticism was levelled by Hoodbhoy at the practice of hiring those foreign academics in local universities who were said to have difficulty in communicating and teaching, although they contributed to boosting the number of research publications originating from Pakistani universities.

An article published in ‘Nature’ on 3 September 2009 was the source of much debate. While it reported many achievements and showered much praise on the activities of the HEC, Hoodbhoy asked that the education system be assessed on the changes in quality of teaching in public universities, procedures for selection of students, and on whether campuses began to see greater academic freedom, greater transparency and less violence from extremist groups.

Awards and honours

He is also the recipient of:

Publications

Books

  • Education and the State – Fifty Years Of Pakistan, Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0195778250
  • Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality; Zed Books, London, 1992. ISBN 978-1856490252 (Translations in Arabic, Indonesian, Malaysian, Turkish, and Urdu)
  • (Co-Edited with A. Ali), Proceedings of the School on Fundamental Physics and Cosmology, World Scientific, Singapore, 1991.
  • (With A. H. Nayyar), Rewriting the History of Pakistan, in Islam, Politics and the State: The Pakistan Experience, Ed. Mohammad Asghar Khan, Zed Books, London, 1986. ISBN 978-0862324711

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

Notes

  1. ^ Pervaiz Hoodbhoy, Sohail Varaich (2010). ADGKS Parvez Hood Bhoy 187605 C3.mp4 =channel (Television production). Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Territory: Geo TV. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
  2. ^ Parvez Hood Bhoy (2010). ADGKS Parvez Hood Bhoy 187605 C1.mp4 (Television Production). Geo TV. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ http://www.chowk.com/articles/5034
  6. ^ 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. Voelter, Wolfgang. "The golden period". Dawn ePaper. http://epaper.dawn.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=23_11_2008_123_003&typ=0. Retrieved 2010-03-10.

^ 7 . Hayward, Fred M. (Winter 2009). "Higher Education Transformation in Pakistan: Political & Economic Instability". International Higher Education Quarterly (54). http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number54/p19_Hayward.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-10.

^ 8. Rode, Bernd Michael. "Letter from Chairman/European Coordinator of ASEA-UNINET published in DAWN today". http://dildilpakistan.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/letter-from-chairmaneuropean-coordinator-of-asea-uninet-published-in-dawn-today/. Retrieved 2010-03-10.

^ 9. TWAS Awards First Regional Prizes for Scientific Institution Building, http://twas.ictp.it/news/press-releases/twas-awards-first-regional-prizes-for-scientific-institution-building

^ 10. New Fellows - 2006 http://royalsociety.org/New-Fellows-2006/

^ 11. News archive 2007 http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/news/2007/

^ 12. "The paradox of Pakistan". Nature 450 (7170): 585–200. 2007. doi:10.1038/450585a. PMID 18046348. edit

^ 13 doi:0.1038/461874c

^ 14. "After Musharraf.". Nature 454 (7208): 1030–2008. 2008. doi:10.1038/4541030a. PMID 18756204. edit

^ 15. Osama, A.; Najam, A.; Kassim-Lakha, S.; Zulfiqar Gilani, S.; King, C. (2009). "Pakistan's reform experiment". Nature 461 (7260): 38–39. doi:10.1038/461038a. PMID 19727184.

^ 16."Cash costs.". Nature 461 (7260): 11–12. 2009. doi:10.1038/461011b. PMID 19727158. edit

^ 17. Pak threat to Indian science,Article from:The Hindustan Times Article date:July 23, 2006

^ 18. Bring HEC back to earth, Article from: Daily Times, http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\03\03\story_3-3-2007_pg3_2 date:March 3, 2007

^ 19. Q&A with Pervez Hoodbhoy, http://www.nextstepforward.net/education-pakistan/qa-with-pervez-hoodbhoy-part-2-of-2/, date: January 10, 2010

^ 20. Nature’s Coverage of Higher Education Reform in Pakistan: A Response from Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy, http://www.nextstepforward.net/education-pakistan/nature_pervez/ , date: 17 September 2009

External links

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