Mourad Dhina: a brief history of Algeria’s future

The scientist

Mourad Dhina attented Blida’s Ibn Rushd high school. As a talented student he obtained in 1979 outstanding high school grades which won him a reception and award by the then President Chadli Bendjedid. He then embarked on a four-year graduate course in physics at the University of Science and Technology of Algiers, which he completed in June 1983. Having achieved the top grade in the physics course, he was awarded a scholarship to study physics at the post-graduate level in the United States [16].

In the autumn of 1983 Mourad Dhina left Algeria for the United States. He attended a short English course before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) near Boston, one of the best universities in the world in science and technology. He completed a master’s degree in Physics in one year (1985) and then went on to study for a PhD with the group of Professor Samuel Ting, Nobel Laureate in Physics [17]. His thesis in experimental particle physics, led by Professor Min Chen, focused on the measurement of the strong force through hadrons produced by electron-positron collisions at high energies. The electron-positron collider (PETRA [18]) used by Mourad Dhina for his measurements was at DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron [19]), the largest German Research Centre for Particle Physics in Hamburg. Mourad Dhina completed his PhD in April 1987, within less than two years [20].

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, USA	Das Deutsche Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, Germany
Prof. Samuel Ting, Nobel Prize in Physics 1976	Mourad Dhina – MIT, Massachusetts, USA

In July of that year, Mourad Dhina was recruited as an experimental physicist at the prestigious Department of Physics of ETHZ [21], the Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich. He contributed to the work on the L3 detector of LEP (large electron-positron collider), the most powerful accelerator at the time, with a perimeter of 27 km and passing one hundred meters below the CERN site, between France and Switzerland. Mourad Dhina worked as part of an international team of physicists which carried out dozens of experiments for measuring the parameters of the electroweak force, testing theories of the electromagnetic and strong forces, searching for the Higgs boson and exploring the existence of new particles and forces [22]. He has contributed to dozens of scientific papers [23].

Despite being engaged in exciting research at the forefront of fundamental physics, Mourad Dhina did not succumb to the temptation of careerism or the cult of individualistic success. Since leaving Algeria, he had taken a keen interest in raising the scientific level of research in the country and had debated extensively with fellow countrymen on how to achieve this aim. He took an active role in the ANTA [24] project, a network of Algerian engineers and researchers in North America, Europe and in Algeria who joined efforts to facilitate the transfer of technology to the country. Mourad Dhina initiatives included a blueprint to form a national group of experimental physicists, securing funds to train Algerian physicists at CERN, a proposal for developing an advanced telecommunication network, the acquirement of computers for students, and the volunteering of technical advice etc. [25]. His efforts and the problems he encountered, when dealing with the national institutions through which he had sought to contribute to technology transfer, convinced him that science and technology cannot take root and flourish in a political environment that subjugates men and minds [26].

These activities occurred during the ‘democratic recess’, a sarcasm used to denote the premature ‘Algerian Spring’ between 1988 and 1991. In October 1988 Algeria had been rocked by youth riots which were put down by the army [27]. Hundreds of Algerians were killed and hundreds were tortured [28]. The army, which seized power after independence, then tried to re-legitimise itself by pretending to agree to a democratic transition. It withdrew from the Central Committee of the sole party (FLN) and appointed a defence minister to fake a disengagement from the political control of the country. A new constitution (1989) enshrining multiparty democracy and the independence of justice was adopted, censorship declined, and private newspapers and civic associations mushroomed. This was a moment of optimism, and a whole generation dreamt of being able, at last, to build an Algeria worthy of its history.