AQ is debatable wether he is trully the father or not. No doubt he was brilliant in his work but credit of 'father' must be given to the person who started and led the way..
I think Abdus Salaam is interesting. Maybe due to his religion, he is not considered the father? Here is a little insight. He was a physicist and later who recieved Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the electromagnetic and weak forces.
Timline:
- In 1965, Salam led the establishing of the nuclear research institute—Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology.
- In 1965, the plutonium reactor Pakistan Atomic Research Reactor went critical under the leadership of Salam.
- In 1971, Salam had travelled to the United States and returned to Pakistan with literature about the Manhattan Project. In 1972, the Government of Pakistan learned about the development status of the first atomic bomb completed under the Indian nuclear programme.
- In 20 January 1972, at the Multan meeting, Bhutto orchestrated to develop the deterrence programme. Former Prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, formed a group of scientists and engineers, which was headed by Salam.
- In 1972, Salam had formed the Mathematical Physics Group, under Raziuddin Siddiqui, that was charged, with the Theoretical Physics Group, to carry out the research in the theory of simultaneity during the detonation process, and mathematics involved in the theory of nuclear fission
- Salam, along with Khan and Riazuddin, met with Bhutto in his residence where the scientists briefed Bhutto about the nuclear weapons program. After the meeting, Salam established the "Theoretical Physics Group (TPG)" in PAEC. Abdus had led groundbreaking work at the TPG and was initially headed by Salam until 1974.
- An office was set up for Salam in the Prime ministers' Secretariat by order of Bhutto. Salam immediately started to motivate and gravitate scientists to begin work with PAEC in the development of fission weapons.
- The DTD was set up to coordinate the work of the various specialised groups of scientists and engineers working on different aspects of the atomic bomb. The word "bomb" was never used in this meeting, but the participants fully understood what was being discussed. On March 1974, Salam and Khan also established the Wah Group Scientist that was charged with the manufacturing materials, explosive lenses and triggering mechanism development of the weapon
- Salam had departed from Pakistan, he did not terminate his connection to Pakistan. Salam continued inviting Pakistan's scientists to ICTP, and maintained a research programme for the Pakistani scientists. Many prominent scientists, including Ghulam Murtaza, Riazuddin, Kamaluddin Ahmed, Faheem Hussain, Raziuddin Siddiqui, Munir Ahmad Khan, Ishfaq Ahmad, and I. H. Usmani, considered him as their mentor and a teacher. Salam did not hesitate to advise the PAEC and Theoretical and Mathematical Physics Group on important scientific matters, and kept his close association with TPG and PAEC.
- Salam founded the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, in the North-East of Italy and served as its director until 1993. In 1974, he founded International Nathiagali Summer College (INSC) to promote science in his country