This Pakistani scientist continues to have global impact today

Published on: May 21, 2018

Pakistan has many heroes we don’t talk enough about. Here is one person we think you must know: Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui. A scientist, a poet and an artist, his work continues to have impact today.

Born in 1897, Dr Siddiqui studied at the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College (later renamed to Aligarh Muslim University). His early university education was in Philosophy and Persian after which he went to University College London to study medicine, and later pursued a doctorate degree in Frankfurt.

After completing his PhD and returning to India, Dr Siddiqui set up the Ayurvedic and Unani Tibbi Research Institute at Tibbia College in Delhi under the guidance of Hakeem Ajmal Khan. In 1940, he joined the Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

It was in 1951 that Liaquat Ali Khan invited him to Pakistan, where he played a founding role in setting up the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui alone has 400 research papers and 40 patents to his name.

He was also an artist and a poet and translated the work of German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. It was under the tutelage of poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore at the Calcutta School of Arts that Dr Siddiqui learnt painting and drawing. His first exhibition was in 1924, where his drawings were displayed at the Galerie Schames in Frankfurt.

This is why we think you must know him: Dr Siddiqui was a man of multiple talents – a poet, an artist and an exceptional scientist whose work continues to have impact today.

Watch this video and know a little something about one of South Asia’s greatest minds.

To learn more about distinguished Pakistanis, subscribe to our Youtube channel.