established the Abdus Salam Chair in Physics. In 2004, Murtaza became the director of the National Center for Mathematics at the Government College University, Lahore until 2006. In 2007, Murtaza later took over the Salam Chair in Physics which he continued to led till 2020, and is now Emeritus Professor of physics at the Government College University. Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and research In 1962, Murtaza joined the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) as a scientific officer, and was a senior scientific officer when he left his research position at the PAEC in 1969 to join academia. At PAEC, he collaborated with the Laser Physics Group under Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan, a laser physicist. His research was originally focused towards understanding elementary particles but became interested in controlled thermonuclear fusion at the Quaid-i-Azam University, and was a participant in early efforts in the mathematical calculations regarding nuclear fission energy during Pakistan's atomic bomb program started in 1972. However, his interest in understanding nuclear fission led him to conduct research in controlled thermonuclear fusion, and he was a founding director of the Fusion Laboratory at the Quaid-i-Azam University. His further research in plasma physics was conducted at the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in 1990s, which he remained associated with in successive years. In his country, Murtaza conducted pioneering research in topics in plasma physics, and published papers in that field in respected international journals. In 2007–08, Murtaza joined PAEC as the director of the National Tokamak fusion Program, and oversaw the commissioning of the GLAss Spherical Tokamak (GLAST) at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH). Recognition Murtaza is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow which he was elected to in 1983, a Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, elected in 1991, and a recipient of the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 1996, and the Khwarizmi International Award in 1997. Scientific papers and publications Radiative Collapse in an impurity-seeded spinning gas-puff staged pinch, Plasma Physics, (Arshad M. Mirza, Zahoor Ahmad, N.A.D Khattak, G Murtaza) Study of Plasma Parameters in a Spinning Thick-Gas-Puff Staged Pinch, Plasma Physics, Arshad M. Mirza, Zahoor Ahmad, N.A.D Khattak, G. Murtaza. Impulsion Dynamics of a Dense q-Pinch Plasma Driven by Multicascade Linear System, Laser and Particle Beams, G. Murtaza, Zahoor Ahmad. Magenetohydrodynamic (MHD) Model for the Staged Pinch Plasma to Study Fusion Parameters and Comparison with Snow Plow Model, Physics of Plasma, Ghulam Murtaza. Thermonuclear Fusion