Abdul H. Nayyar is a physicist and a Visiting Professor at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, where he was a member of the faculty of the Department of Physics from 1973 to 2005. He also was a Visiting Professor in the School of Science and Engineering at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lahore) and has been a researcher at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. He has PhD (1973) in physics from Imperial College, London. He is a co-founder the Pakistan Physical Society, a professional society of physicists and served as the Secretary of Pakistan Physical Society in 1990, 1992 and 1998. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, leading their programs on security and energy issues, and on reforming the curriculum and textbooks used in Pakistan's public schools and has served as Executive Director of the Ali Institute for Education, Lahore. In 2010, he was a co-recipient of the American Physical Society's Joseph Burton Award "for broadening the public understanding of science in Pakistan and for informing the public of the dangers of the nuclear arms race in South Asia." He is the editor of "Taqat ka Sarab (Illusions of Power): Implications of Nuclear weapons in South Asia", the most extensive collection of essays on the nuclear dangers in South Asia available in Urdu (Mashal, 2014). He has been a regular summer visitor with the Program on Science and Global Security since 1998 and is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials.
Research Interests
A.H. Nayyar’s research interests focus on nuclear weapons, fissile materials and nuclear energy especially in South Asia. His recent work engages with understanding the history of the twenty years of nuclear arms racing and crises between India and Pakistan since their nuclear weapon tests in 1998, the emerging naval nuclear arms race between the two countries, the development of battlefield nuclear weapon systems by Pakistan and the risks and consequences of nuclear weapon use and nuclear war. He also works on improving understanding of the production of fissile materials in Pakistan and India, the risks of nuclear accidents, nuclear power plant siting issues, and challenges in preparedness against disasters from nuclear plants.
Publications (needs cleanup)
Zia Mian, M. V. Ramana, and A. H. Nayyar, Nuclear Submarines in South Asia: New Risks and Dangers, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 2 (1), 2019.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, and M. V. Ramana, The Twenty Years’ Crisis of Nuclear South Asia, 1998–2018: A Workshop Report, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 1 (2), 2018.
M. V. Ramana, A. H. Nayyar, and M. Schoeppner, Nuclear High-level Waste Tank Explosions: Potential Causes and Impacts of a Hypothetical Accident at India's Kalpakkam Reprocessing Plant, Science & Global Security, 17, 2016.
A. H. Nayyar and Zia Mian, Pakistan and the Nasr Missile: Searching for a Method in the Madness, Economic and Political Weekly, 39, 2015.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Karachi Nuclear Reactors: The Environmental Watchdog That Did Not Bark, China Dialogue, July 9, 2015.
A. H. Nayyar, P. Hoodbhoy, and Zia Mian, The Nuclear Shadow Over Karachi, Newsweek-Pakistan, March 22, 2014.
A. H. Nayyar, Caution Required: Reviewing the EIA of Karachi’s Nuclear Project is a Specialised Task, Dawn, March 10, 2015.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Pakistan’s Battlefield Use of Nuclear Weapons, in Pervez Hoodbhoy (ed.), Confronting the Bomb: Pakistani and Indian Scientists Speak Out, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2014.
M. McKinzie, Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, and M. V. Ramana, What Nuclear War Could Do to South Asia, in Pervez Hoodbhoy (ed.), Confronting the Bomb: Pakistani and Indian Scientists Speak Out, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2014.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Pakistan’s Nuclear Diplomacy and the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, in Pervez Hoodbhoy (ed.), Confronting the Bomb: Pakistani and Indian Scientists Speak Out, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2014.
A. H. Nayyar (ed.), Taqat ka Sarab (Illusions of Power): Implications of Nuclear Weapons in South Asia, A Collection of Essays on Nuclear Issues, Mashal Books, Lahore, 2014.
A. H. Nayyar, P. Hoodbhoy, and Zia Mian, Nuclear Karachi, Dawn, Karachi, December 16, 2013.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, The Limited Military Utility of Pakistan’s Battle-field Use of Nuclear Weapons in Response to Large-scale Indian Conventional Attack, Briefing 61, Pakistan Security Research Unit, Peace Studies Department, Bradford University, November 2010.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Playing the Nuclear Game: Pakistan and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, Arms Control Today, April 2010.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Pakistan and Nuclear Disarmament, in Country Perspectives on Nuclear Disarmament, Companion Volume to Global Fissile Material Report 2009, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, 2010.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, and R. Rajaraman, Uranium Resource Constraint on Fissile Material Production in Pakistan, Science & Global Security, 17, 2009, 2009.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Pakistan and FMCT, in Banning the Production of Fissile Materials for Nuclear Weapons: Country Perspectives on the Challenges to a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty, Companion Volume to Global Fissile Material Report 2008, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, September 2008.
A. H. Nayyar, A Pakistani Perspective on Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Briefing Paper, 2008.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, M. V. Ramana, R. Rajaraman, Plutonium Production in India and the US-India Nuclear Deal, Gauging US-Indian Strategic Cooperation, Henry Sokolski, ed., Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, Carlisle, PA, March 2007.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, R. Rajaraman and M. V. Ramana, Fissile materials in South Asia and the Implications of the U.S.-India Nuclear Deal, Science & Global Security, 14 (2-3), 2006.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, R. Rajaraman and M. V. Ramana, Fissile Materials in South Asia and the Implications of the US-India Nuclear Deal, Research Report 1, International Panel on Fissile Materials, September 2006.
R. Rajaraman, Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, Nuclear Civil Defense in South Asia: Is it Feasible?, Economic and Political Weekly, November 20, 2004.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, An Initial Analysis of 85Kr Production and Dispersal from Reprocessing in India and Pakistan, Science & Global Security, 10 (3), September-December 2002.
M. V. Ramana and A. H. Nayyar, India, Pakistan and the Bomb, Scientific American, December 2001.
Matthew McKinzie, Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, and M.V. Ramana, The Risks and Consequences of Nuclear War in South Asia, in S. Kothari and Zia Mian (eds.), Out of The Nuclear Shadow, Zed Books, Rainbow Press & Lokayan, 2001.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Pakistan's Chashma Nuclear Power Plant: A Preliminary Study Of Some Safety Issues And Estimates Of The Consequences Of A Severe Accident, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies Report, 321, Princeton University, December 1999.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, and M. V. Ramana, Bringing Prithvi Down to Earth: The Capabilities and Potential Effectiveness of India's Prithvi Missile, Science & Global Security, 7 (3), 1998.
A. H. Nayyar, A. H. Toor, and Zia Mian, Fissile Material Production Potential in South Asia, Science & Global Security, 6 (2), 1997.