Nationality US Name Mohammad Alam | Role Physicist Fields Particle physics | |
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Institutions King Fahd University of Petroleum & MineralsUniversity at Albany, SUNY Siblings M. Shahid Alam, Muhammad Mahmood Alam Institution King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, University at Albany, SUNY | ||
Mohammad Sajjad "Saj" Alam (born 5 January 1947) is an American physicist born in British India (Pakistan after 1947, and Bangladesh after 1971). His work has focused on particle physics and computational physics. He has played a significant role in several major particle physics experiments (the Mark II, CLEO, GEM, BaBar, ATLAS collaborations) that have led to new discoveries in the area of high-energy particle physics.
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Early life and family
Alam was born in Dhaka, then in the Bengal Presidency of British India (now Bangladesh ), to a well-educated family of Kolkata, British India. His family moved to West Pakistan around 1971, after the secession of East Pakistan. Alam is one of eleven siblings. His eldest brother, Muhammad Mahmood Alam (1935 – 2013), was a Pakistani fighter pilot and war hero, who rose to the rank of one-star general in the Pakistan Air Force. Another brother, M. Shahid Alam, is an economist and a professor at Northeastern University,
Alam decided to become a physicist when his eighth grade science teacher at Saint Gregory High School in Dhaka, introduced him to atomic and nuclear physics. "I was hooked; I came home and told my father I know that I would become a physicist."
He was the first member of his family to come to the United States, and is one of the first Pakistanis to get a PhD in experimental particle physics. He is now a naturalized American citizen, and lives in the US. Alam is married and has two children.
Academic history and positions
Alam began his academic career at Dacca University, in what is now Bangladesh. There he earned a BSc in Physics and an MSc in Theoretical Nuclear Physics. He went on to earn a Phd in Experimental Particle Physics from Indiana University in 1975. Alam next spent a year at Vanderbilt University as a research associate before securing a position at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 1979, after four years at SLAC, he accepted a faculty position at Vanderbilt.
Alam remained with Vanderbilt until 1984, at which time he joined the faculty of the University at Albany, SUNY. At Albany, he served as chair of the physics department (2003-2006) and director of the Albany High Energy Physics Lab. Still currently associated with Albany, since 2010 Alam has also held the chair professor of physics at the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals.
Research
Alam's research has focused on experimental particle physics and computational physics. He was the principal investigator on several major experiments, including the ATLAS experiment at CERN, the BaBar experiment at SLAC, and the CLEO experiment.
He has been author or co-author of over 1200 refereed papers, and counts 43 of these as his direct publications.
The major experiments that Alam has directed or played a significant role in include:
Alam is currently working extensively with the Beowulf cluster class of supercomputers.
In addition to his direct contributions to physics, Alam has greatly enjoyed his role as a mentor to new physicists, and has supervised more than twenty PhD students. He is also keenly interested in the relationship between science and religion, and teaches a course on the subject.