UN Day

For the second consecutive year, ICTP celebrated UN Day on 24 October. Trieste's other international scientific institutions--including the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), the International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS), and the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP)--joined in the festivities. Among the dignitaries attending the event were Roberto Dipiazza, mayor of Trieste; Vincenzo Grimaldi, prefect of Trieste; and ambassador Francesco Caruso, Italy's permanent representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Highlights included a brief video message by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan; the awarding of long-service medals to ICTP staff; a photographic exhibit focussing on scientists of Trieste's institutions; and an evening concert held at Teatro Verdi in downtown Trieste.

---

In Dubai
More than 400 diplomats and scientists met in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on 27-30 October 2002, for the first-ever Group of 77 High-Level Conference on Science and Technology. ICTP sponsored a multimedia exhibit and a booklet describing the Trieste System, a unique network of international scientific institutions headquartered in Trieste that focusses much of its research and training activities on scientific capacity building in the South. The Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) organised the conference's three scientific workshops on information technology, biotechnology, and applications of appropriate technologies for greater access to safe drinking water. With 134 members, the G-77 serves as the primary voice for developing countries within the United Nations system. The booklet can now be browsed on the web at www.triestesystem.it.

---

Venezuelan Visit

The deputy minister of science and technology of Venezuela, Rudolf Romer, visited ICTP on 24-25 October. He attended the UN Day celebrations and met ICTP acting director Erio Tosatti and acting director of administration Gallieno Denardo to discuss potential strategies for improving the co-operation between Venezuelan scientists and the Trieste System.

---

World Heritage
ICTP served as the host of the UNESCO World Heritage Workshop, "Partnerships for Nature and Biodiversity Conservation," on 11-12 November. The Trieste workshop was one of nine workshops held throughout Italy designed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of UNESCO's World Heritage Programme.

Walter Erdelen, the Mayor of Trieste and Erio Tosatti

Walter Erdelen, UNESCO assistant director general for the Natural Sciences Sector, and Thomas Lovejoy, president of the Heinz Center, USA, were among those participating in the Trieste workshop. The week-long event culminated in an international conference held at UNESCO's regional office in Venice.

Thomas Lovejoy

---

System Impact

Roberto Antonione, Italy's deputy foreign minister, met with representatives of the Trieste System, including ICTP acting director Erio Tosatti, on 8 November. At the meeting, which took
place at ICTP, Antonione emphasised the important diplomatic and cultural impacts that the Trieste System has had on the global scientific community. He expressed his support for continuing to have the System serve as the primary reference point for the Italian government in its efforts to help scientists from Third World countries.

---

Retirements

Yu Lu, long-time head of the condensed matter physics group who retired from ICTP last year, has returned to his home country of China to join the Institute of Theoretical Physics' Interdisciplinary Centre of Theoretical Studies (ICTS), which is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His departure followed a 'farewell party' attended by Centre scientists and staff who thanked him for his years of dedicated service to ICTP and wished him well in his future endeavours.

Concetta Mosca, long-time clerk of the Diploma Course, has recently retired. For the past 11 years, Concetta has provided practical assistance and 'motherly' help to the more than 250 students who have participated in the Diploma Course programme. Scientists and staff extend to Concetta warm thanks for her many years of service and wish her well in her retirement.

---

Hungarian Choir

Pecsi Kamarkorus, a renowned Hungarian chamber choir consisting of professors, physicians and students, performed at the Kastler Lecture Hall in the Adriatico Guesthouse on 16 November. Tillai Aurel, professor emeritus at the University of Pecs, directs the choir.

---

Women and Peace

"Women and Peace," an international contemporary art exhibition organised by the ICTP Cultural Committee, was held at the Adriatico Guesthouse from 11-20 December 2002. The exhibition featured paintings by 10 women artists from Austria, China, Germany, Holland, Italy and Yugoslavia.

---

IN MEMORIAM

Per Bak, a Danish theoretical physicist who was one of the founders and most influential contributors to the study of complex systems, died last October. He was 54. Bak had served as a professor of physics at Imperial College, London, UK, since 2000. His most important contribution to science was a general theory of self-organisation, which he labelled self-organised criticality, that shed light on the behaviour of such disparate phenomena as earthquakes, forest fires and stock-market prices. In 1996, Bak wrote How Nature Works, which received broad public attention and was translated into several languages. Bak, who visited ICTP on several occasions, last came to Trieste in May 2002 to participate in the Workshop on Self-Organized Criticality and Phase Transitions in Driven Systems.

 

Bunji Sakita, a mentor of former ICTP director Miguel A. Virasoro, died on 31 August after a lengthy illness. He was 72. Sakita's first visit to Trieste took place in 1967 and his last just a year before his death. Sakita, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester, New York, was teaching at the University of Wisconsin when Miguel Virasoro joined the university's physics department as Sakita's first postdoc. At Wisconsin, Virasoro conducted research that led to the concept of 'Virasoro algebra.' Sakita subsequently moved to the City College of New York, where he remained until his retirement. His contributions to physics range from the SU(6) unification in the 1960s, to the first linear realisation of supersymmetry in the 1970s, to the large N-expansion via collective co-ordinates in the 1980s, to the quantum Hall effect in the 1990s.

 

Rene Thom, an internationally renowned French mathematician honoured for his breakthrough 'catastrophe' theory, died at his home at Bures-sur-Yvette, near Paris, on 25 October. He was 79. During World War II, Thom studied at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, then moved to Strasburg, to continue to work with Henri Cartan. After visiting the United States in 1951 (where he met Albert Einstein), Thom was appointed professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques at Bures-sur-Yvette. There, he developed a mathematical description of situations that gradually change forces and, over time, lead to so-called catastrophes or abrupt changes. In 1958, Thom received the Fields Medal for his efforts. He visited ICTP in 1983 and again in 1988.

---

Back to ContentsForward to Profile

Home