Salam 100 Public Event: Stage Performance

As part of Abdus Salam’s centennial celebrations, ICTP invites its community to a public event that explores the inner life of its founder. The play ‘The Trial of Abdus Salam’ imagines Salam’s final hours and offers a glimpse into some of his deepest personal struggles.

The play will be performed on Thursday 4 June at 18:00 hrs at Teatro Miela, in central Trieste, offering audiences an opportunity to learn more about a giant in science whose work as the founder and first director of ICTP has impacted many generations of scientists, particularly from the Global South.

Attendance is free, but seating is limited and must be reserved ahead of the event at this link. The performance will be in English, and will not include subtitles.

About the play

In 1979, Abdus Salam became the first Muslim to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. He was recognised for his contributions towards the unification of the electromagnetic and the weak nuclear forces – a work that has yielded profound insights into the nature of the physical world.

A devout Muslim, Salam had repeatedly emphasized the crucial role that Islam had played in the shaping of his science and his vision, which was inspired by the surahs of the Quran that speak of a fundamental unity amongst all things and all peoples. Salam realized his vision both through his work towards the unification of the forces of nature and also through his creation of ICTP—which is today a welcoming home for scientists from all over the world.

Yet, during his lifetime, this grand unifier of forces and people was ostracised as a heretic and a traitor. ‘The Trial of Abdus Salam’ is an imagined courtroom drama written and directed by Nilanjan P. Choudhury, which explores the trials, the triumphs, the genius and faith of one of the greatest scientific figures to have emerged from Asia.

The event is organised with the support of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS).