PHYSICIST

Abdul Qadeer Khan

1936 - 2021

Photo of Abdul Qadeer Khan

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Abdul Qadeer Khan (1 April 1936 – 10 October 2021) was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer. He is colloquially known as the "father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program". A Muhajir emigrant from India who migrated to Pakistan in 1952, Khan was educated in the metallurgical engineering departments of Western European technical universities where he pioneered studies in phase transitions of metallic alloys, uranium metallurgy, and isotope separation based on gas centrifuges. After learning of India's "Smiling Buddha" nuclear test in 1974, Khan joined his nation's clandestine efforts to develop atomic weapons when he founded the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in 1976 and was both its chief scientist and director for many years. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Abdul Qadeer Khan is the 295th most popular physicist (up from 306th in 2019), the 159th most popular biography from India (up from 161st in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Indian Physicist.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Abdul Qadeer Khan ranks 295 out of 851Before him are Charles Wheatstone, Ernest Walton, Lawrence M. Krauss, John Clauser, Anne L'Huillier, and Harry Daghlian. After him are Zhores Alferov, Carl von Linde, Samuel C. C. Ting, Klaus Hasselmann, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and Walter Kohn.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1936, Abdul Qadeer Khan ranks 65Before him are Ghassan Kanafani, Costas Simitis, Don Cherry, Eva Hesse, Denny Hulme, and Steve Reich. After him are Jack Lousma, Iolanda Balaș, Samuel C. C. Ting, Petar Mladenov, Richard Wilson, and Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud. Among people deceased in 2021, Abdul Qadeer Khan ranks 63Before him are Wilbur Smith, Eduardo Martínez Somalo, Sam Jones, Betty White, Jean-Claude Carrière, and Jorge Medina. After him are John Magufuli, Pat Hitchcock, Viktor Bryukhanov, Osamu Yamaji, Phil Spector, and Norman Lloyd.

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In India

Among people born in India, Abdul Qadeer Khan ranks 159 out of 1,861Before him are Lawrence Durrell (1912), Lata Mangeshkar (1929), Sushruta (-620), Sher Shah Suri (1486), Kasturba Gandhi (1869), and Bindusara (-320). After him are Wilfred Bion (1897), Ashok Kumar (1911), Guru Angad (1504), Vikramaditya (-102), Ravi Shankar (1956), and George Alencherry (1945).

Among PHYSICISTS In India

Among physicists born in India, Abdul Qadeer Khan ranks 3Before him are C. V. Raman (1888), and Satyendra Nath Bose (1894). After him are Anna Mani (1918), Tom Kibble (1932), Homi J. Bhabha (1909), Jayant Narlikar (1938), Vikram Sarabhai (1919), Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893), Udupi Ramachandra Rao (1932), Abhay Ashtekar (1949), and Daulat Singh Kothari (1906).