Ishrat Hussain Usmani

Ishrat Hussain Usmani was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and a former chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He was born in Delhi, British India, on 15 April 1917. He received his MSc in physics from Aligarh Muslim University in 1938 and his PhD in physics from London University in 1940. He worked as a lecturer at Aligarh Muslim University and Delhi University before joining the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell, England, in 1947. He returned to Pakistan in 1954 and joined the newly established PAEC as its first scientific secretary. He became the chairman of PAEC in 1958 and held the position until 1972. Under his leadership, PAEC established the first nuclear power plant and the first research reactor in Pakistan. He also initiated the nuclear fuel cycle and uranium enrichment projects in the country. He was also the first chairman of the IAEA from Asia, serving from 1962 to 1964. He played a key role in promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. He received the Nishan-i-Imtiaz, the highest civilian award of Pakistan, in 1998. He died of natural causes in Karachi, Pakistan, on 17 June 1992. He was 75 years old.