Abdul Qadeer Khan

Abdul Qadeer Khan (1936 to 2021) was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer, born in Bhopal and educated in the metallurgical engineering departments of Western European technical universities. His studies covered phase transitions in metallic alloys, uranium metallurgy and isotope separation by gas centrifuges. In 1972 he joined a Dutch subcontractor to the Urenco uranium enrichment consortium at Almelo, and in 1976, after India's 1974 nuclear test, he founded the Khan Research Laboratories in Pakistan, serving for many years as its chief scientist and director. He is widely called the father of Pakistan's atomic weapons programme. In 2004 he admitted running a nuclear proliferation network, later retracted the statement, and was placed under house arrest until 2009. He died in 2021 and was given a state funeral.