The grandson of TWAS founder Abdus Salam, Moazzum Bajwa—associate professor of family medicine at the University of California Riverside, United States of America—attended the 17th TWAS General Conference in Rio de Janeiro, representing the Salam and Bajwa families. He offered a rare blend of personal reflection and generational perspective (at 3'30'') on how TWAS continues to embody his grandfather’s mission four decades after its founding.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting to meet all different scientists from around the globe who are working incredibly hard to uphold the legacy that my grandfather started 40 years ago,” Bajwa said.
Watch the full interview here
For him, one of the most meaningful aspects of attending the conference was discovering how deeply Salam’s influence remains embedded in the work of scientists across the global South.
“One of the things that I would say is most special about being at the conference this week is getting to understand not just the legacy of my grandfather, but how that plays out today with scientists from across the globe,” he said.
Because Salam was already in the late stages of severe neurodegenerative disease when Bajwa was a child, most of Bajwa's understandings of his legacy come from either family stories or photographs, he explained.
A key source for him has been an article published in the CERN Courier (p. 11) after Salam’s death. Bajwa recounted one moment from the article that continues to move him. At an honorary ceremony in 1993, a young Pakistani student approached Salam—who could no longer speak—and said, “Sir, we are students from Pakistan, and we are very proud of you.” Bajwa recalled how “my grandfather’s shoulders shook, and tears came down his face.”
Bajwa was particularly struck by how strongly some participants in the TWAS General Conference felt a sense of belonging at TWAS. He described meeting a biochemistry professor originally from Rwanda who shared that “when she comes to TWAS events and conferences, it’s where she feels most at home as a scientist.”
For Bajwa, this sentiment reflects precisely what Abdus Salam hoped to build: a scientific home for researchers in the global South who lacked institutional support. Hearing such stories firsthand, he said, “moves you to tears.”
“Every single scientist that I’ve spoken to offers some similar story about their life, and I can connect that back to the legacy of my grandfather. And that's a very beautiful thing.”
Giovanni Ortolani