Jamal Nazrul Islam (24 February 1939 – 16 March 2013) was a Bangladeshi

mathematical physicist Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the developmen ...

and cosmologist. He was a professor at University of Chittagong, served as a member of the advisory board at

Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) is a Public university, public research university, research based university in Sylhet, Bangladesh. It is the List of universities in Bangladesh#Public universities, 8th oldest university o ...

and member of the syndicate at

Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম প্রকৌশল ও প্রযুক্তি বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়), commonly referred to as CUET ( bn, চুয়েট), is a ...

until his death. He also served as the director of the Research Center for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (RCMPS) at the University of Chittagong. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2000 by the

Government of Bangladesh The Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh ( bn, গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ সরকার — ) is the central executive government of Bangladesh. The government was constituted by the Con ...

Early life and education

Jamal Nazrul Islam was born on 24 February 1939 in

Jhenaidah Jhenaidah ( bn, ঝিনাইদহ) is a city in the Khulna Division of south-western Bangladesh. Jhenaidah is the headquarters of Jhenaidah Sadar Upazila and Jhenaidah District. The city has a population of about 252 thousand, making it the ...

. His ancestral home is at Jujkhola Narayanhat of

Fatikchhari Upazila Fatikchari( bn, ফটিকছড়ি, Fôṭikchhôṛi) is an upazila of Chattogram District in Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. History The Fatikchhari Jami al-Uloom Fazil Madrasa and the Jamia Arabia Nasirul Islam Madrasa were founded i ...

Chittagong District Chittagong District, renamed the Chattogram District, is a district located in the south-eastern region of Bangladesh. It is a part of the Chattogram Division. The port city of Chattogram, which is the second largest city in Bangladesh, is ...

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

. His father, Khan Bahadur Sirajul Islam, was a sub-judge in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. Because of his father's job, Islam spent his early school years in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. He studied at

Chittagong Collegiate School and College Chittagong Collegiate School is a government educational institution in Chittagong, the southern port city in Bangladesh.It provides education from 5th to 12th grade. Established in 1836, it is one of the oldest and the best educational institutes ...

until ninth grade and then he went to

Lawrence College, Murree Lawrence College Ghora Gali is a school situated in Murree Tehsil, Punjab, Pakistan. The college is located in the foothills of the Himalayas and Pir Panjal at a height of about 1950 metres (6395 feet) above sea level, covering an area of . It ...

West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial exclaves created during the One Unit Scheme in 1955 in Pakistan. It was d ...

to pass the Senior Cambridge and Higher Senior Cambridge exams. He received a

BSc degree A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from

St. Xavier's College A multitude of schools and universities have been named after St. Francis Xavier, a Spanish Roman Catholic saint and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. This page lists notable educational institutions named after St. Xavier, arranged by country a ...

at the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

. In 1959, he got his Honors in Functional Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. He completed his master's degree in 1960. As a student of the

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, he finished the

Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos examined at the University. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was a ...

. Islam obtained his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical s ...

and

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...

from

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

in 1968, followed by a

DSc DSC may refer to: Academia * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dalton State Col ...

in 1982.

Academic career

Islam worked in the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy (later amalgamated to Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge) from 1967 until 1971. Later he worked as a researcher in California Institute of Technology and

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. During 1973–1974, he served as the faculty of Applied Mathematics of

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. In 1978, he then joined the faculty of City University London until he returned to

Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...

in 1984. In 2006, he was made

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the University of Chittagong. His research areas included

mathematical physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and t ...

, the theories of

gravitation In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

, mathematical cosmology, and

quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles and ...

. Islam authored, coauthored or edited more than 50 scientific articles, books and some popular articles published in various scientific journals. Besides this he has also written books in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

. Particularly noteworthy are ''Black Hole'', published by the Bangla Academy, "The Mother Tongue, Scientific Research and other Articles" and "Art, Literature and Society". The latter two are compilations. In 1997, Islam was invited to the International Symposium on Mathematical Physics in memory of

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (; ) (19 October 1910 – 21 August 1995) was an Indian-American theoretical physicist who spent his professional life in the United States. He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for "... ...

with a special session on Abdus Salam arranged by Calcutta Mathematical Society in Kolkata-India. Professor Narayan Chandra Ghosh, a mathematician of India, was director of the noted symposium.

Fellowships

* Third World Academy of Science (1985) *

Cambridge Philosophical Society The Cambridge Philosophical Society (CPS) is a scientific society at the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1819. The name derives from the medieval use of the word philosophy to denote any research undertaken outside the fields of law ...

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Bangladesh Academy of Sciences is an academic forum for Bangladeshi scientists and technologists. Established in 1973, it aims to fulfill the role of promoting research and development of sciences in Bangladesh. History After the partition of ...

(1983) * Islamic Academy of Sciences

Death

Islam died on 16 March 2013 in

Awards

* Gold award from

(Senior group; 1985) * Medal Lecture award from Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze (1998) * Bangladesh National Award for Science and Technology (1998) * Ekushey Padak (2001) * Razzak-Shamsun Lifetime Achievement Award in Physics from the

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

(2011)

Books authored/coauthored/edited

* Islam, J.N. (1983):
The Ultimate Fate of the Universe
'.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. . (Digital print version published in 2009). * Bonnor, W.B., Islam, J.N., MacCallum, M.A.H. (eds.)(1983):
Classical General Relativity: Proceedings of the Conference on Classical (Non-Quantum) General Relativity
',

. . * Islam, J.N. (1985):
Rotating Fields in General Relativity
',

. . (Digital print version published in 2009). * Islam, J.N. (1992, 2nd edition 2002):
An Introduction to Mathematical Cosmology
',

. .

References

External links

SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

TWAS membership

Jamal Nazrul Islam (1939–2013)

My memories of Jamal Nazrul Islam

Famous South Asian physicist, cosmologist J N Islam died

Professor Jamal Nazrul Islam — as I saw him

Jamal Nazrul Islam: The passionate learner

Life sketch of Prof Jamal Nazrul Islam
{{DEFAULTSORT:Islam, Jamal Nazrul 1939 births 2013 deaths People from Jhenaidah District Bangladeshi physicists Bengali physicists Bengali mathematicians University of Calcutta alumni Fellows of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Recipients of the Ekushey Padak Shahjalal University of Science and Technology faculty University of Chittagong faculty Honorary Fellows of Bangla Academy Fellows of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences