Abdus Salam (1926-1996) was a 1979 Nobel laureate in Physics, and helped found the Theoretical Physics Group at Imperial College London. He first arrived at Imperial College London in 1957 and remained a professor here for the rest of his life. Salam won the Nobel Prize, along with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg, for his work in unifying two fundamental forces of nature: electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force. Not only was Salam a brilliant theoretical physicist, but he also championed the spread of science in the developing world.

He founded the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste in 1964, with the aim of having of its visiting researchers be from the Global South. The ICTP allowed scientists from all over the world to have access to world-class resources and a vibrant intellectual ecosystem for research collaboration. Throughout his life, Salam was a tireless advocate for science-driven development.

On January 29 2024, Imperial College London renamed its Central Library to the Abdus Salam Library to honour this hero of humanity and science. As part of our celebrations on the day, the Digital Media Lab from the Faculty of Natural Sciences produced this documentary about Salam's time at Imperial – including interviews from Emeritus Professors Mike Duff and Ray Rivers, string theorist Tasneem Zehra Husain, former director of the ICTP Fernando Quevedo, and family member Ahmad Salam.

Directed by: Catalina Ganea and Robert Gravenor from the Digital Media Lab

Special thanks to: Zakir Thaver, Imperial College London Library Team, Imperial College London Theoretical Physics Group, ICTP, and the Salam family