Prominent Physicist Professor Dr Mohammed Sajjad Alam Departs
By Dr A. Khan
Chicago, IL
Prominent Pakistani-American physicist Dr Mohammad Sajjad ‘Saj’ Alam, Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics, University at Albany, SUNY, passed away in New York. Professor Sajjad Alam (b. January 5, 1947) was the younger brother of Air Commodore M. M. Alam (July 6, 1935 – March 18, 2013) — Pakistan’s top scoring fighter ace, who during the September 1965 war, flying his F-86 F-35-NA shot down nine Indian air fighters in air-to-air combat.
Professor Sajjad Alam’s family migrated from Calcutta, British India, to Dhaka after the creation of Pakistan in August 1947, and after the fall of Dhaka in 1971, the family moved to Karachi. He had ten siblings. Sajjad Alam received his BSc and MSc (1970: Theoretical Physics) degrees from Dhaka University, East Pakistan. In early 1970s he came to the United States for higher education and earned his doctoral degree in Experimental Particle Physics from University of Indiana (1975). For the next four years Dr Sajjad Alam worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), and in 1979 he accepted a faculty position at Vanderbilt University. In 1984, he joined the Department of Physics, University at Albany, SUNY, and served as chair (2003-2006), and director of the Albany High Energy Physics Laboratory. While at Albany, Dr Alam also served as Professor of Physics at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Dr Alam was an avid researcher, his work focused on experimental particle physics and computational physics. He was the principal investigator for major experiments which included the ATLAS experiment at CERN, the BaBar experiment at SLAC and the CLEO experiment. He authored/co-authored more than 1,200 referred publications. Before his demise he was working with the Beowulf cluster class of supercomputers. During the past fifty years, Professor Alam played a significant role in the following experimental work:
- (1972–1974) SLAC E-82 Searches for Exotic Associated with Mesons Using a Fast Forward Neutron Trigger with the 15" Rapid Cycling Bubble Chamber
- (1974–75) SLAC E-103 Search for Exotic Mesons Using a Fast Forward Proton Trigger with the SLAC Streamer Chamber
- (1976–79) MARK II at SPEAR studying collisions. Focus on charm physics.
- (1979–2000) CLEO collaboration (CLEO 1.5, CLEO II), studying collisions at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR). Focus on charm and beauty physics.
- (1992–1993) Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detector proposal for the Superconducting Super Collider
- (1993–2000) CLEO II Upgrade. Particle Identification System
- (1995–present) Joined the ATLAS detector pixel group at the Large Hadron Collider , CERN
- (1998–2000) Nominal member of BTeV at FNAL
- (2000–present) Joined the BaBar Collaboration
Professor Sajjad Alam was a very humble and helpful person. He enjoyed mentoring new physicists; he had supervised more than two dozen doctoral students. Professor Alam was also interested in exploring the relationship between Science and Religion; and taught a course on the subject. He received numerous awards and honors for his academic accomplishments.
Professor Mohammad Sajjad Alam is survived by his wife, two children, a brother (Dr Shahid Alam, Professor of Economics at Northeastern University) and three sisters. According to his will, Professor Sajjad Alam’s body was flown to Pakistan for burial. May Allah SWT bless his soul and assign him a station in Janet-ul-Firdous. Ameen.
