Physicist and science writer Harun-ar-Rashid no more

Professor AM Harun-ar-Rashid, a renowned physicist who won Bangladesh’s highest civilian awards and participated in the Language Movement, has died at the age of 88.

Suffering from old-age complications, Prof Harun-ar-Rashid breathed his last at Anwer Khan Modern Hospital in Dhaka on Saturday, said Mohammed Arshad Momen, a professor of theoretical physics at Dhaka University.

A noted science writer, Prof Harun-ar-Rashid left behind his wife and two daughters.

Harun-ar-Rashid, who devoted his life to the pursuit and promotion of science, completed his PhD from the University of Glasgow in theoretical physics in 1960 working under Professor RG Moorehouse and Professor BH Bransden.

He participated in the first Scottish Summer School on “dispersion relations” in Edinburgh in 1960 as well as in the first ever summer seminar on theoretical physics held at Trieste in 1962 organised by Professor Abdus Salam.

He published about 150 scientific papers, books and other publications. He received the Ekushey Padak in education in 1991 and the Independence Award in 1999.

In his early career, he joined Dhaka University as a lecturer in the Department of Physics. He became a full professor at the same university in 1972, reports bdnews24.com.