Pervez Hoodbhoy

Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy is a Pakistani nuclear physicist and activist who served as Zohra and Z.Z. Ahmed Foundation Distinguished Professor of physics and mathematics at the Forman Christian College-University in Lahore, and previously taught physics at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Lahore and the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) in Islamabad. Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy is also a prominent activist, in particular concerned with promotion of freedom of speech, secularism, scientific temper and education in Pakistan. He received his BS (1973, electrical engineering), BS (1973, mathematics), MS (1973, physics), and PhD (1978, nuclear physics) degrees, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He taught physics at Quaid-e-Azam University for 37 years. He is a recipient of the Baker Award for Electronics and the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics. He was visiting professor at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland. In 2003 he was awarded UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science.

In 2011, he was included in the list of 100 most influential global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine.

Also in 2003, Dr. Hoodbhoy was invited to the Pugwash Council. He is a sponsor of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and a member of the Permanent Monitoring Panel on Terrorism of the World Federation of Scientists (Erice). In 2010, Dr. Hoodbhoy received the Joseph A. Burton Award from the American Physical Society and the Jean Meyer Award from Tufts University. In 2011, he was included in the list of 100 most influential global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. As the head of Mashal Books in Lahore, he leads a major translation effort to produce books in Urdu that promote modern thought, human rights, and emancipation of women. In 2013, he was appointed as member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament.

Read more about Pervez Hoodbhoy in his Curriculum Vitae.

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