The Award is a brainchild of Professor Abdus Salam 's students Dr. Riazuddin, Dr. Fayyazuddin and Dr. Asghar Qadir who first presented the idea to Abdus Salam in 1979. Abdus Salam, who felt that he had no right to use the Prize money for personal purposes but that it must be used to further his mission of development of Science in the Third World. Abdus Salam specially put aside money to help Pakistan and Pakistani students. In 1980, Prof. Salam asked Prof. Fayyazuddin and Dr. Asghar Qadir to formulate the rules and procedures for a Prize to be awarded to young Pakistani scientists for their research in the basic sciences. Professor Asghar Qadir is currently the Secretary of Salam Prize Committee at School of Natural Sciences (SNS) in National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST).