Share the post “Pakistan’s Newton Apple Tree: The Forgotten Scientific Legacy of NPSL”
The Pakistani scientist who worked at Britain’s NPL
Long before becoming Director of NPSL, Khalid Islam had worked at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, United Kingdom, as a research scholar pursuing doctoral work involving an ALMS generator—an advanced electronic atomic timekeeping system capable of maintaining accuracy to extraordinarily fine decimal levels.
He earned a prestigious scholarship associated with HRH the Prince of Wales, an opportunity offered to only a handful of students internationally. His work at NPL demanded more than theoretical research. To complete the technical installation, he routed several hundred metres of electronic cabling through the establishment, turning a complex scientific assignment into an operating system.
Britain offered him professional opportunity, including a £25,000 job offer at the time. He could have remained there, completed his doctorate and followed the comfortable route taken by many capable professionals whose home countries fail to create equivalent opportunities.
He chose Pakistan.
Khalid Islam returned before completing his PhD because he wanted to bring the technology and knowledge home. That decision cost him personally, but it gave Pakistan something considerably more important than another expatriate success story: domestic scientific capability.
In 1993, he installed the atomic timekeeping system through which Pakistan strengthened its ability to realize and maintain Pakistan Standard Time domestically instead of depending entirely upon an external reference. Pakistan Standard Time had existed administratively before this installation, but the achievement gave the country a stronger scientific foundation for generating, maintaining and disseminating its own precise time reference.
That distinction matters. A time zone can be declared on paper; maintaining a national time standard requires scientific infrastructure.
Why atomic timekeeping matters
Everyday clocks appear simple because the scientific machinery behind them is hidden. Modern telecommunications, broadcasting, satellite systems, navigation, scientific laboratories, power networks and digital transactions depend upon precise synchronization.
A small timing discrepancy means little to someone checking a wristwatch, but at the level of electronic systems it can interfere with data transmission, frequency control and measurement reliability. Atomic timekeeping makes it possible to preserve stability far beyond the capability of ordinary mechanical or electronic clocks.
Khalid Islam did not merely bring back a machine. He brought back the ability to operate, maintain and apply highly specialized knowledge inside Pakistan.
That is what genuine technology transfer looks like. It is not a foreign delegation giving a presentation, signing a photograph-friendly memorandum and leaving. It happens when a Pakistani scientist learns an advanced system, returns home, installs it, trains people and embeds the capability inside a national institution.
Keith Berry, NPL and the relationship with Pakistan
During Khalid Islam’s tenure as Director, NPSL actively cultivated relationships with measurement institutions in other countries. Delegations from the United Kingdom were invited to Pakistan, giving their scientists an opportunity to see the laboratories, technical services and institutional ambition being developed in Islamabad.
Among those visitors was Keith Berry, a research scientist associated with the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington. Berry visited Pakistan three times between 2004 and 2006 and was deeply impressed by the enthusiasm, technical direction and progress demonstrated under Khalid Islam’s leadership.
The relationship developed into a meaningful connection between NPSL and NPL. In reciprocation, Berry invited Khalid Islam to visit NPL and Bushy House, allowing him to return to an institution where he had previously conducted demanding scientific work.
This was scientific diplomacy built through professional respect. Pakistan was not begging for ceremonial recognition. Its scientist had created an institutional relationship by demonstrating competence.
