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News from ICTP 104 - Dateline
The Ecological and Environmental Economics programme, an activity
that ICTP will host through 2004, held its official launch on
10 February. Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate in economics
(1987), participated in the official launch in ICTP's Kastler
Lecture Hall. The event was part of the First School on Ecological
Economics that began on 27 January with a series of 'teaching
workshops.' The initiative is promoted under an agreement with
the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Sweden,
and Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei, Italy. For additional
information, please contact eee@ictp.trieste.it.
IUPAP
The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP)
executive council and commission chairpersons met at ICTP on 24-25
January to plan IUPAP's activities for the next three years. A
key topic on the agenda was potential strategies for helping developing
countries improve their education and research programmes. Special
attention was paid to the role that ICTP and the Third World Academy
of Sciences (TWAS) could play in these efforts. Other topics discussed
included professional ethics, the state of physics in Italy, and
planning for the World Year of Physics, which will be celebrated
in 2005.
Chaudhari to Head Brookhaven
Praveen Chaudhari, chairperson of the ICTP Scientific
Council, has been appointed director of Brookhaven National Laboratory,
which is part of a network of national laboratories operated by
the US Department of Energy. Chaudhari was employed at IBM for
more than 30 years as a scientist and senior manager of research,
rising to the position of vice president for science. An expert
in condensed matter physics, he has published more than 150 research
articles and has received 22 patents. Chaudhari has served as
chairperson of the ICTP Scientific Council since 1998.
L'Oreal Prize to Weissmann
Mariana Weissmann receiving the L'Oréal-UNESCO Prize
from Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO
Former ICTP Senior Associate (1985-1994) Mariana Weissmann,
senior researcher at Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who has visited ICTP on numerous occasions
over the past two decades, has been awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO
Prize for Women in Science. The prize, given each year to five
women scientists (one from each of the five continents), carries
a cash award of US$100,000. This year's competition focussed on
material science. Launched in 1999, L'Oréal-UNESCO Prize
for Women in Science has become one of the world's most prestigious
prizes for women scientists. For additional information, see www.forwomeninscience.com.
EU to Trieste
Christian Patermann, Director of Environment, Marine
Ecosystems and Biodiversity at the European Commission (EC), visited
Trieste's international scientific institutions on 19-20 February
to discuss potential areas of participation under the European
Union's (EU) 6th Framework Programme for scientific research and
technological development. He spoke of EU's keen interest in working
in partnership with scientific institutions in the developing
world and expressed hope that the institutions that make up the
Trieste System--most notably, ICTP, the Third World Academy of
Sciences (TWAS), the International Centre for Genetic Engineering
and Biotechnology (ICGEB), and the International Centre for Science
and High Technology (ICS)--could serve as an important conduit
between the North and South.
ICTP Director "Abdus Salam Professor"
In addition to his position as director, Katepalli R. Sreenivasan
has been named the Abdus Salam Honorary Professor of the International
Centre for Theoretical Physics. The professorship, named after
ICTP's founding director, is designed to recognise Sreenivasan's
outstanding qualifications as a high-level scientist in the fields
of statistical and nonlinear mechanics, turbulence, and the physics
of fluids, as well as his intention to continue his own active
research programme while serving as director.
Tosatti Deputy Director
Erio Tosatti, ICTP's acting director from June 2002
to March 2003, will continue to serve the Centre as acting deputy
director until June this year, when he will return full-time to
the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA). Tosatti's
presence will help ensure a smooth transition for ICTP's new director,
K.R. Sreenivasan, who began his tenure in March.
Science in Muslim Countries
The InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP) and the
Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), whose secretariats are
located on ICTP's campus, hosted a workshop on capacity building
for science academies in countries with predominantly Muslim communities
on 5-7 March. The workshop concluded with a one-day symposium
examining science, religion and values. The list of attendees
included Atta-ur-Rahman, chair, Higher Education Commission, Pakistan;
Bruce Alberts, president, US National Academy of Sciences; and
Abdulaziz O. Altwaijri, director general, Islamic Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO). For additional
information, contact iap@twas.org.
Jagla New CM Staff Member
Argentinean-born Eduardo Alberto Jagla is the newest
member of the ICTP condensed matter physics group. He joined the
group earlier this year. Jagla received his Ph.D. from the University
of Bariloche concentrating his studies on vortex dynamics in superconductors
(the subject of his thesis) and strongly correlated systems. Since
then, his research has focussed on the theoretical underpinnings
of phase transitions. His studies in this field have contributed
to our understanding of anomalous behaviour in such substances
as water and silica. A frequent visitor to ICTP over the past
decade, Jagla most recently served as researcher of Consejo
Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONYCET)
at Instituto Balseiro, Bariloche, Argentina.
Bhattacharya TIFR Director
Condensed matter experimentalist Sabyasachi (Shobo) Bhattacharya,
who attended a number of ICTP training activities during the 1990s,
has been appointed director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India. TIFR, with 400 scientific staff,
is one of India's premier research institutions.
Salam Prize to Farhan Saif
Farhan Saif, assistant professor at the Department of
Electronics of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, has
been awarded the Salam Prize in the field of physics. Farhan Saif
has participated in several ICTP conferences and schools in condensed
matter physics since 1997. The Salam Prize is given on a rotating
basis in the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology.
Begun in 1981, it is awarded to Pakistani scientists, younger
than 35 years of age, who live and work in their native country.
Founder and long-time ICTP director Abdus Salam, who won the Nobel
Prize in physics in 1979, used a portion of his prize money to
launch the award. Comparable Salam prizes are given to scientists
in Egypt, Morocco, Palestine and Syria.