Naeem Ahmad Khan (12 April 1928 – 29 September 2013), , was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and a professor of physics who was known for his work in developing techniques using the solid-state nuclear track detector and

solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance Solid-state NMR (ssNMR) spectroscopy is a technique for characterizing atomic level structure in solid materials e.g. powders, single crystals and amorphous samples and tissues using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The anisotropic pa ...

. Although he worked with the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...

for most of his career, he also taught physics at a number of Pakistani universities and was the civilian scientist of the

Pakistan Air Force , "Be it deserts or seas; all lie under our wings" (traditional) , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = ...

(PAF) until his death.

Early life

Khan was born in

Hoshiarpur Hoshiarpur () is a city and a municipal corporation in Hoshiarpur district in the Doaba region of the Indian state of Punjab. It was founded, according to tradition, during the early part of the fourteenth century. In 1809, it was occupied b ...

, Punjab, British India on 12 April 1928. He enrolled at the University of Delhi and attended St. Stephen's College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree with honors in mathematics in 1946. Khan then joined the Indian Meteorological Department (Indian Met Office), transferring to the

Pakistan Meteorological Department The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) ( ur, , also known as Pakistan Met Office), is an autonomous and independent institution tasked with providing weather forecasts and public warnings concerning weather for protection, safety and gener ...

after the 1947

Independence of Pakistan The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the per ...

. Khan left the Pakistan Meteorological Department in 1948 to attend Sindh University in Hyderabad, where he received a Master of Arts (MA) degree in mathematics in 1950. He joined the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) the following year, was commissioned as a lieutenant, and was a senior instructor in Air Force education units. Becoming interested in physics, Khan transferred to the Air Force Reserve to attend the physics program at Karachi University in 1953. Khan received a Master of Science (MSc) degree in physics (with research focused on mass spectroscopy) from Karachi University in 1955, and obtained funding from the

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) (Urdu: ) is a federally funded independent governmental agency, concerned with research and development of nuclear power, promotion of nuclear science, energy conservation and the peaceful usage of nucl ...

(PAEC) to pursue doctoral studies in physics in the United Kingdom the following year. He attended the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

and received a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in nuclear physics in 1958. In 1959, he became a fellow of the

Physical Society of London The Physical Society of London, England, was a scientific society which was founded in 1874. In 1921, it was renamed the Physical Society, and in 1960 it merged with the Institute of Physics (IOP), the combined organisation eventually adopting the ...

Career

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

Khan returned from England and joined the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in 1960. Promoted as a scientific officer the following year, his early research focused on low-energy nuclear reactions. Khan then returned to the United Kingdom, where he conducted his postdoctoral research at the

Atomic Energy Research Establishment The Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) was the main Headquarters, centre for nuclear power, atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from 1946 to the 1990s. It was created, owned and funded by the British Governm ...

in Harwell (funded by the PAEC and the

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...

). He went to the United States in 1962, and was a research fellow at the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

in Philadelphia in 1964 and 1965. Khan returned to Pakistan in 1965, and was a senior scientific officer at the PAEC Minerals Center in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

; he became its principal scientific officer in 1967. He formed the Nuclear Physics Group, with mechanical engineer Hafeez Qureshi and physicists Bashiruddin Mahmud and

Samar Mubarakmand Dr. Samar Mubarakmand (Urdu: ; b. 17 September 1942; ), is a Pakistani nuclear physicist known for his research in gamma spectroscopy and experimental development of the linear accelerator. He came to public attention as the director of the t ...

as key members. The Nuclear Physics Division made fundamental calculations on

neutron scattering Neutron scattering, the irregular dispersal of free neutrons by matter, can refer to either the naturally occurring physical process itself or to the man-made experimental techniques that use the natural process for investigating materials. Th ...

through the

gas centrifuge A gas centrifuge is a device that performs isotope separation of gases. A centrifuge relies on the principles of centrifugal force accelerating molecules so that particles of different masses are physically separated in a gradient along the radiu ...

process before it was disbanded by 1969. Khan was posted to the PAEC's administration in 1970, and was its director of training and international affairs before becoming secretary. His research continued to focus on developing a solid-state nuclear track detector, and he aided work on neutron scattering; in 1968, he published an article on the subject with Qureshi. Khan was appointed director of the Research Technological Department in 1975, directing the Nuclear Physics Division before becoming director of the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (Pakistan's national laboratory) in 1977.

Academic and government work

Khan became chairman of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) in 1984, where he remained until he became technical adviser to the Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) in 1989. He was a founding fellow of the

Islamic World Academy of Sciences The Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) is a non-profit organisation of scientists and technologists that works for the promotion of science and technology in the Islamic world. It was founded in 1986. Foundation The establishment of th ...

in 1986, promoting science and technology in the Islamic world. Khan left COMSTECH in 1996, and was vice-president of the

Pakistan Academy of Sciences The Pakistan Academy of Sciences ( ur, ) (abbreviated as: PAS), is a learned society of sciences, which described itself as "a repository of the highest scientific talent available in the country." Established in 1953 in Lahore, Punjab, the A ...

(PAS) until the following year. In 1997, Khan became a professor of physics at Karachi University, Sindh University in Hyderabad,

Quaid-e-Azam University Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad ( ur, ; commonly referred to as QAU), founded as University of Islamabad, is a ranked 1 public research university in Islamabad, Pakistan. Founded as the University of Islamabad in 1967, it was initially dedi ...

in Islamabad, Punjab University in Lahore, and the Air University in Islamabad. He supervised five doctoral candidates in physics at Punjab University who were funded by the PAEC. Khan also worked for the

Ministry of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rel ...

(MoE), and briefly served on the advisory board of the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan. In 2007, he became the Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) civilian scientist, instructing its pilots on aerodynamics and meteorology at the

Pakistan Air Force Academy The Pakistan Air Force Academy Asghar Khan ( ur, ) is an accredited three-year military academy which provides undergraduate education to officer candidates for the Pakistan Air Force. The eligible and selected candidates from all over Pakista ...

in Risalpur. Khan died in Islamabad on 29 September 2013, and is buried there. Physicist

N. M. Butt Noor Muhammad Butt (Urdu: نور محمد بٹ); b. 3 June 1936), , also known as "N. M. Butt", is a Pakistani nuclear physicist and professor of physics at the Preston University who is known for his research publications in understanding the ...

published a eulogy and obituary for the PAS in October 2013.

Research in physics

Khan's research revolved around the biological applications of nuclear physics. He worked in fission production calculations and energy measurement through the solid-state nuclear track detector (SSNTD), which he pioneered in 1989 with "Solid State Nuclear Track Detection: A Useful Tool for Basic and Applied Science Research" (co-authored with Hameed Ahmad Khan, another PAEC scientist. During the 1980s, Khan supervised the SSNTD project with

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

's Nuclear Engineering Division particle accelerators. He played key roles in the establishment of the SSTND laboratory and the development of the

Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology The Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology (PINSTECH) ( ur, ) is a federally funded multiprogram science and technology research institute managed for the Ministry of Energy by the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sc ...

(PINSTECH)'s nuclear accelerator and

particle detector In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing particles, such as those produced by nuc ...

s. In 1989, Khan and his team of PINSTECH scientists studied the behaviour of 960 MeV/nucleon

uranium-238 Uranium-238 (238U or U-238) is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature, with a relative abundance of 99%. Unlike uranium-235, it is non-fissile, which means it cannot sustain a chain reaction in a thermal-neutron reactor. However, it ...

(²³⁸U)

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

s which passed through a stack of CR-39 (³⁹CR) detectors. They had observed that the uranium ions underwent binary fission and broke into protons,

alpha particle Alpha particles, also called alpha rays or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus. They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay, but may also be produce ...

s, and heavy ions while moving through the stack.

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20070810193641/http://www.paspk.org/fellow5.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20110610134200/http://www.ias-worldwide.org/profiles/prof37.htm
Papers
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Naeem Ahmad 1928 births 2013 deaths Academics of the University of Manchester Alumni of the University of Manchester Fellows of Pakistan Academy of Sciences Indian emigrants to Pakistan Indian meteorologists Muhajir people Pakistan Air Force civilians Pakistan Air Force officers Pakistani civil servants Pakistani nuclear physicists Pakistani expatriates in the United Kingdom Pakistani expatriates in the United States Pakistani inventors Pakistani meteorologists Pakistani physicists Pakistani scholars Pakistani scientists Pakistani textbook writers Pashtun people People from Hoshiarpur Project-706 Punjabi people Academic staff of Quaid-i-Azam University Delhi University alumni University of Karachi alumni Academic staff of the University of Karachi Academic staff of the University of the Punjab University of Sindh alumni Academic staff of the University of Sindh