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Top 10 Outstanding Facts about Abdul Qadeer Khan

Abdul Qadeer Khan in 2017. Picture Courtesy of Waiza Rafique

Abdul Qadeer Khan was a Nuclear Physicist and metallurgical engineer who is colloquially known as the “father of Pakistans atomic weapons program”. He was born on April 1, 1936, in Bhopal, British India.

He attended the University of Karachi Delft University of Technology, Catholic University of Louvain, and D.J.Sindh Government science college.

Abdul is well known for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, gaseous diffusion, martensite, and graphene morphology.

The following are some of his outstanding facts;

1. He is the founder of gas-centrifuge enrichment technology for Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent program

Urenco in Gronau Picture courtesy of Tetzemann

Knowing sciences, Abdul Qadeer is widely regarded as the founder of gas-centrifuge enrichment technology for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program is a source of extreme national wide.

Abdul had special access to the most restricted areas of the URENCO facility. He could also read secret documentation on the gas centrifuge technology.

In December 1974, he came back to Pakistan and he tried to convince the Prime Minister, Ali Zulfikar Bhutto, to adopt his Uranium route than the Plutonium route in building nuclear weapons.

2. Abdul Qadeer played an important role in Pakistan’s space program

The space program, particularly Pakistan’s first polar satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) project and the Satellite Launch Vehicle(SLV). Khan’s unrestricted publicity of the Pakistans government.

The ballistic missile made the US government think Pakistan was giving nuclear weapons technology to North Korea, to get missiles in exchange. Khan was under scrutiny and alleged to sell nuclear technology to Iran.

He was pardoned and placed under house arrest. Pakistan government declared Khan to have prostate cancer and was released from house arrest.

3. He was a key figure in the establishment of several engineering universities

View from GIK Institute Clock Tower. The shot was taken in April 2009 when we got special permission to get inside for our FYP.By Graphicalx at English Wikipedia

In Pakistan, Khan contributed to the establishment of several engineering Universities. In Pakistan, Khan contributed to the establishment of engineering Universities.

He first began by setting up a metallurgy and material science institute at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. Khan served both as executive member and Director.

He has been named as Dr. A.Q. Khan’s Department of metallurgical Engineering and Material Sciences. Another school is Dr. A.q Khan Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering at Karachi University.

Thus, Khan has played a vital role in bringing metallurgical Engineering courses to various Universities in Pakistan.

4. Khan is the most respected and influential scientist in Pakistan

Having been born in Bhopal, India, he migrated with his family to Pakistan. Khan studied at St. Antonys High School and joined D.j Science College of Karachi. He chose Physics and Mathematics.

He met a good and famous lecturer at the college who was a solar Physicist, Dr. Bashir Syed. He earned a degree in Physical metallurgy at the University of Karachi in 1966.

5. Abdul Khan was hired by Physical Dynamics Research Laboratory

It was in the spring of 972 when Khan was hired by Physical Dynamics Research Laboratory, a subcontractor of the Dutch partner of URENCO.

URENCO is a consortium of British, German, and Dutch companies established in 1971 to research and develop Uranium enrichment through the use of ultracentrifuges, which are centrifuges that operates at high speed.

He gained a full range of information on ultracentrifuge technology and visited the Dutch plant at Almero many times. One of his jobs was to translate German Documents on advanced centrifuges into Dutch.

6. He was arrested for transferring nuclear technology to other countries

Mk 14 nuclear bomb. Picture by Public Domain,

On January 31, 2004, Khan was arrested for transferring nuclear technology to other countries. He had been equated responsibility for operations and absolving the military and government of any involvement.

Khan was pardoned by the Pakistan president, Perre Musharraf, but he was held under house arrest until 2009. Khans critics, particularly in the west, expressed dismay at such lenient treatment of a man was known as the “greatest nuclear proliferation of all time”.

Khan remains a symbol of pride, a hero whose contribution strengthened Pakistan’s national security against India.

7. He got a lucrative job after enrolling for doctoral  program

“Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna hosts seminar on Physics on Large Hadron Collider. Picture By RIA Novosti archive

It was in the year 1972 when Abdul Khan joined the doctoral program in metallurgical engineering at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.

He worked under Belgian Martin J.Brabers who supervised his doctoral thesis which Khan successfully defended and obtained a doctorate in Metallurgical Engineering.

This enabled Khan to land a lucrative job in Physics Dynamics Research Laboratory in Amsterdam.

8. Khan obtained an Engineering Degree and a doctorate in Metallurgical Engineering

Former analytical chemistry building (Vries van Heystplantsoen 2), Delft University of Technology, Delft, South Holland, the Netherlands. It currently does not belong to the university and is used as an apartment building. Photo courtesy of Ymblanter

Qadeer Khan obtained an Engineers degree in Technology from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. This is where he specialized in studying sciences and mathematics which gave him basics on the formulation of bombs and nuclear.

He later obtained a doctorate engineering in metallurgical engineering under the supervision of Martin  Brabers from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, in 1972.

His advancement to a doctorate gave him great opportunities in great jobs in the Pakistans government.

9. Qadeer worked and conducted research for several companies

Through his experience in weapons, Khan conducted research for companies majorly based in Pakistan and different countries throughout Europe.

His work involved Uranium metallurgy’s high -strength and the implications of martensite on the field of morphology, or the ability of physical objects to change phase, texture, shape, and size.

Beyond the study of implications, he contributed to important work of studying metals of gas centrifuges essential in the field of uranium enrichment for nuclear reactors.

10. He is celebrated as a Pakistani hero 

Qadeer Khan’s incredible work in formulating nuclear has made him a symbol of hero and pride. Qadeer Khan will be remembered more for his work of testing and making nuclear weapons hence improving Pakistan’s defense efforts.

There was a tremendous improvement in the country’s army. His support from the Prime Minister spurred him to help the country’s army.

Qadeer Khan died on 10th October 20121 at the age of eighty-five in Islamabad, Pakistan.