Spirit of Salam 2025 Awardees Announced

The family of ICTP founder and Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam has revealed the recipients of the 2025 Spirit of Abdus Salam Award. Announced annually on Abdus Salam’s birthday, the award recognizes those who, like Salam himself, have worked tirelessly to promote the development of science and technology in disadvantaged parts of the world.
 
This year’s Spirit of Abdus Salam Award recipients are:
 

• Qaisar Shafi: For his longstanding commitment to Abdus Salam's vision as his colleague and doctoral student, and more recently as a supporter of the Qaiser and Monika Shafi Prize for Diploma students. Together with Salam, Shafi created the BCVSPIN (an acronym denoting Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Nepal) initiative to nurture high-energy physics in Asia, a platform for scientists in the South/Southeast Asia region to learn about exciting developments in particle and astroparticle physics and cosmology from leading experts. From the early 1980s until 1997, Shafi organized/co-organized several weeks-long summer schools on particle physics and cosmology at ICTP.
• Renato Padovani: For his efforts in setting up, organizing and managing the Advanced Master in Medical Physics (together with 2015 Spirit of Salam award winner Luciano Bertocchi). The MMP is one of ICTP's most successful programmes. About 10% of all medical physicists in developing countries have been trained through this programme. It is making a direct impact in the improvement of people's lives in developing countries, by given training opportunities to young scientists that do not exist in their home countries.

 
The award ceremony will take place later in 2025.
 
The Spirit of Abdus Salam Award may be given to anyone within the extended ICTP family of scientists and non-scientists, and administrative staff alike who can show that they have worked tirelessly to further Abdus Salam's humanitarian  passion  and vision for the cooperation,  promotion and development of science and technology in the developing  world. For more details, and to see the list of past winners, please visit the Spirit of Abdus Salam Award page.