Baqi Bég

Mirza Abdul Baqi Beg, professor of physics at Rockefeller University, died of a heart attack in New York City on 30 January 1990. He was 55 years old. Born in Etawah, India, on 20 Sep- tember 1934, he received his BSc with honors in physics at Sind University, Pakistan, in 1951, his MSc in applied mathematics at Karachi University in 1954 and his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Pitts- burgh in 1958. He was a research fellow at the University of Bir- mingham in England from 1958 to 1960, a research associate at Brookha- ven National Laboratory from 1960 to 1962 and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1962 to 1964. In 1964 he was appointed assis- tant professor of physics at Rockefel- ler University and in 1968 he was promoted to the rank of full professor. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Aspen Center for Physics and editor of Comments in Nuclear and Particle Physics. Baqi began his research career in condensed matter and nuclear phys- ics, deriving “Beg’s theorem” on proton-nucleus scattering in 1961. Around that time he turned his atten- tion to what was to become his real love: particle theory, and in particu- lar the study of symmetry and its breaking.

In 1964-65, Baqi made important contributions to the recently proposed SU(6) theory. The most important result was the celebrated theorem relating the magnetic moments of the neutron and proton. Baqi’s work at this time helped the development of the quark model of hadrons. A physicist of great versatility, he had broad interests, both in concep- tual and phenomenological areas. From the mid-1960s onward, he made important contributions in such di- verse fields as the weak and electro- magnetic interactions of elementary particles (both in the local Fermi and gauge theory contexts), dynamical symmetry breaking, compositeness, technicolor models, CP violation, cur- rent algebra, scale and conformal invariance, left-right symmetry, ra- diative corrections to /S decay and the problem of triviality and its possible relevance to the derivation of Higgs mass bounds. He and Alberto Sirlin collaborated on two extensive review papers, published in 1974 and 1982, on the gauge theories of weak interac- tions. Baqi had a masterful command of language, a quality that is very apparent in his writings. During the summer of 1969, Guido Altarelli, Baqi and Sirlin lectured extensively at the Centro de Investiga- ciones y de Estudios Avanzados del Institute Politecnico Nacional in Mexico City. As a consequence, a number of bright Mexican students, who now hold positions of leadership in that country, journeyed to Rockefel- ler University to do their PhD work.

Baqi was able to attract to the “Beg laboratory” at Rockefeller, as it was called, a number of young, bright theorists, such as Louise Dolan, David Callaway and Mark Rubin, and sever- al postdoctoral associates and stu- dents. He was very proud of his “young people,” and during the last few years he worked very hard to try to ensure the continuity and smooth functioning of this lively group. A man of great generosity and a strong sense of loyalty to his friends and collaborators, Baqi extended a warm hospitality to many scientists of the New York City area and beyond. Several physicists spent sabbatical leaves at the Beg lab, and there were frequent and distinguished visitors from other areas of the US and abroad. Baqi leaves a very big vacuum. We have lost a talented physicist at a relatively early age. We have also lost a mature scientist who had a very special gift for bringing together phy- sicists of very different backgrounds and personalities to discuss physics, develop new ideas and often work toward common goals. Baqi will live, however, in his beautiful and chal- lenging writings and in the minds of those who had the great privilege of being his friends and collaborators.

Obituary writtten by Jeremy Bernstein and Alberto Sirlin for Physics Today, 1991. Link here.