Pervez Hoodbhoy

Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy (Urdu: پرویز امِیرعلی ہودبھائی; Urdu pronunciation: [pərʋeːz əmiːɾəliː ɦuːd̪bʱaːiː]; born 11 July 1950) is a Pakistani nuclear physicist, author, media commentator, and social activist.

He is generally considered one of the most vocal, progressive and liberal members of the Pakistani intelligentsia.

Hoodbhoy is known for his opposition to nuclear weapons and vocal defence of secularism, freedom of speech, scientific temper and education in Pakistan.

Some senior journalists, political and army figures have leveled accusations of treason and unbelief against him but he has rebutted them.

Instead he regards himself as a global citizen.

His physics-math course lectures, as well as on popular science topics, are widely watched and available online.

Hoodbhoy taught physics at Quaid-e-Azam University (formerly Islamabad University) from 1973 to 2020 but in between also taught sociology in addition to physics and math in Lahore as well as LUMS.

He was visiting professor at several US universities and laboratories and is currently (2021-2025) adjunct professor physics at the University of New Brunswick.

At MIT Hoodbhoy received three degrees simultaneously in 1973.

These were a double BSc in electrical engineering and mathematics and a MSc in solid-state physics.

Immediately thereafter he joined Islamabad University (later called Quaid-e-Azam University) as a junior lecturer in October 1973 where he taught physics for two years but was also heavily involved in left-wing political work.

After two years of teaching and activism he returned to MIT to work on various problems of nuclear structure theory under the supervision of Prof. John W. Negele.

He was awarded a doctorate in nuclear physics in 1978 with a thesis titled, “Time Dependent Correlations in Nuclear Dynamics”.

Hoodbhoy’s PhD research was in nuclear physics but much of his later work focused on the quark-gluon structure of nuclei, quantum chromodynamics, and particle phenomenology.

In particular this included the spin structure of nuclei and quark-gluon components of the proton’s spin as measured in various hard processes.

He has also published papers seeking to link ADS/CFT and extra space-time dimensions with certain nuclear phenomena.

His other works touch on quantum hydrodynamics, Berry phases, skyrmion physics, and quantum Hall phenomena.

In 1981 Hoodbhoy accepted an offer for post-doctoral research at the University of Washington.

Awards for Hoodbhoy include the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics (1984); the Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science (2003); the TWAS-ROCASA prize; the Jean Meyer Award for global citizenship; the Joseph A. Burton Forum Award (2010) from the American Physical Society.

In 1986 he spent his sabbatical year as visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

While still a professor at the Quaid-e-Azam University, he made several visits as a guest scientist to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics and also held short-term visiting professorships at MIT and University of Maryland.

He initiated and co‐directed (1988-1990) the World Laboratory Project on Cosmology and High Energy Physics in Pakistan.

Hoodbhoy is a sponsor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists a member of the Permanent Monitoring Panel on Planetary Emergencies of the World Federation of Scientists, and a member of the Asia Pacific Leaders Network.

In 2021 he took the lead role in establishing The Black Hole, a community space in Islamabad for nurturing science, art, and culture.

Hoodbhoy has written for Project Syndicate, DAWN, The New York Times, Washington Post, Prospect magazine, and The Express Tribune.

Since 1989 Hoodbhoy has headed Mashal Books in Lahore, a publishing house that claims to be a leading "translation effort to produce books in Urdu that promote modern thought, human rights, and emancipation of women".

On 14 April 2001, the Pakistan government announced that Hoodbhoy had been selected for receiving the Sitara-i-Imtiaz from then-president, General Pervez Musharraf.

However Hoodbhoy turned down the award on grounds that bureaucrats and non-scientists were not capable judging scientific work or deciding on scientific awards.

Hoodbhoy was born and raised in Karachi, Sindh, in a family belonging to the Ismaili Shia community.

He has one elder brother, and three sisters including infectious diseases specialist Dr. Naseem Salahuddin and reporter Nafisa Hoodbhoy.

He has been married twice, first to Hajra Ahmed, niece of public intellectual and activist Eqbal Ahmad.

Hoodbhoy and Hajra Ahmed have two daughters together, including Alia Amirali, a well-known feminist and political activist.

They divorced in 2009 and Hoodbhoy later married Sadia Manzoor who is also, like him, a physics professor.

They were married late in life and do not have children together.

Hoodbhoy attended the Karachi Grammar School in Karachi for his initial schooling.

After graduating, at the age of 19, Hoodbhoy went to the United States to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a scholarship.

During his undergraduate years he worked in restaurants, various odd jobs, and as a campus janitor to support his studies.

In 2011, he was included in the list of 100 most influential global thinkers by Foreign Policy.

From 2013 to 2017 he was a member of the UN Secretary General's advisory board on Disarmament.

In 2019 he received the honorary doctorate of law from the University of British Columbia.