Muhammad Rafique (2 January 1940 — 16 June 1996) was a Pakistani mathematician and professor of mathematics at the Punjab University. He was a versatile scholar who authored

textbooks A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, but also of learners ( ...

computer language A computer language is a formal language used to communicate with a computer. Types of computer languages include: * Software construction#Construction languages, Construction language – all forms of communication by which a human can Comput ...

and

special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory of the relationship between Spacetime, space and time. In Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, Annus Mirabilis papers#Special relativity, "On the Ele ...

. He was the co-author of textbook ''Group Theory for High Energy Physicists'', which was eventually published years after his death in 2016.

Biographical overview

Rafique was born in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

on 2 January 1940 in Lahore, Punjab in India and was educated at the

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a state university in Kapurthala, Punjab * Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Techn ...

where he graduated with BA with

first-class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

in 1960. He served in the Faculty of Mathematics at the Punjab University where he graduated with MA in Mathematics in 1964, and earned a scholarship to study mathematics in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. He attended the

University of North Wales Bangor University () is a public research university in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. It was established by Royal Charter in 1885 as the University College of North Wales (UCNW; ), and in 1893 became one of the founding institutions of the federal ...

where he graduated with a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Mathematics in 1967. Upon returning to Pakistan, he joined the Punjab University and taught there until 1971 when he joined the

International Center for Theoretical Physics The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is a research center for physical and mathematical sciences, located in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The center operates under a tripartite agreement between the Ita ...

in Italy as a post-doctoral scholar. From 1972 to 1977, Rafique worked at the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology where he contributed his work on fast neutron calculations for

atomic weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explo ...

which built his interests in the

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated physics theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical ph ...

and

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies th ...

. From 1977 to 1982, he served on the faculty of

University of Tripoli The University of Tripoli (UOT) (Arabic: جامعة طرابلس), is the largest university in Libya and is located in the capital city of Tripoli. It was founded in 1957 as a branch of the University of Libya before it was divided in 1973 to ...

in Libya, and served as the Head of Department of Mathematics at the Punjab University from 1983 until 1992 when he went to teach mathematics at the King Fahd University in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. His tenure at the King Fahd University was short-lived. He died due to cardiac arrest in June 1996. Although a mathematician, Rafique was a prolific author on physics, was writing a college text on

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

's applications on

high energy physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons, while the stu ...

with Mohammad Saleem at the time of his death in 1992. The college book was eventually published in 2015-2016 by British publisher

Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, Routledge, F1000 (publisher), F1000 Research and Dovepress. It i ...

Textbooks

* * * * *

References

{{authority control R R R R R Pakistani relativity theorists R R R R R R R R R Pakistani expatriates in Libya

Biographical overview

Textbooks

See also

References