| Abdul Hameed Nayyar | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 11, 1945 Hyderabad, British India Present-day India |
| Residence | Lahore |
| Citizenship | Pakistan |
| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Fields | Condensed matter physics |
| Institutions | Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Quaid-i-Azam University Princeton University International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) |
| Alma mater | Karachi University Imperial College |
| Known for | Nuclear disarmament work in Square lattice (Mathematics) and Renormalization (Physics) |
| Notable awards | 2010 Joseph A. Burton Award |
Abdul Hameed Nayyar (Urdu: عبدلحمید نیّر) (born: 11 January 1945) is a Pakistani physicist and nuclear activist. He specialized in solid state physics and quantum physics, and quantum mechanics. He was a visiting research scientist at the Princeton University and worked on Renewable Energy and Clean Fuel Program at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad. Dr. Nayyar is also a prominent peace activist, strong supporter of non-nuclear proliferation, nuclear disarmament, and peaceful use of nuclear technology.
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Dr. Nayyar was born in Hyderabad, India. He received his early and intermediate education in Sukkur and Multan before attending the Karachi University. At University of Karachi, Nayyar received his B.Sc. and M.S. in Physics from there. Later, he went to United Kingdom to attend Imperial College, London, where he obtained his another M.Sc. in physics under the supervision of dr. Abdus Salam. At Imperial College, Nayyar obtained his Ph.D. in Theoretical-Condensed matter physics. Upon returning, he took up teaching position at the Physics department at the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad in 1973.
Since retiring in 2005, he has been involved in running the Renewable Energy/Clean Fuel program at SDPI. He has also been a visiting Research Scientist at the Princeton University since 1998. He is presently a faculty member at the LUMS.
He co-edited the SDPI report “The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan”,[1] published in 2003, the report critically examined curriculum guidelines and textbook contents in the mainstream public school system of Pakistan. The report, which was intensely debated on public forums, eventually led to the government exercise to revise school curricula and textbooks (see: Pakistan Studies curriculum).[2] Also from SDPI, he co-authored a critical appraisal of the National Education Policy, published in 2006. He has also researched and written on Madrassa education. For over a year, he served as the Executive Director of Developments in Literacy, an organization of Pakistani Americans for philanthropic intervention in education to disadvantaged communities in Pakistan.
Dr. Nayyar also takes an active interest in the national and international peace movements. Dr. Nayyar is a member of the Global Council of Abolition 2000, a member of the Steering Committee of the Asian Peace Alliance, co-Convener of Pugwash Pakistan, and a member of the Board of Governors of Focus on the Global South, Bangkok.
Another area that interests him is nuclear disarmament. He holds a visiting position at the Program on Science and Global Security of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, USA, where he spends summer months conducting technical studies on issues in nuclear disarmament. He is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials.
Nayyar has made numerous contribution in quantum physics and mathematics and published number of publications in physics. He made important contribution to the fields of Renormalization (physics), Dynamic response, and the Square lattice in mathematics.
In the area of renewable energy, the energy group at SDPI that he helped establish, has studied the question of marketability of renewable energy technologies with a view to identifying policy measures that could promote their use in Pakistan.