UNESCO DDG Comes to ICTP

Marcio Barbosa, deputy director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UNESCO, visited ICTP on 18 March. Barbosa met with the director, Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, and senior administrator,
Dag H. Johannessen. He also heard brief presentations from each of the group heads. The meeting focussed on future avenues of potential cooperation between the two institutions. UNESCO serves as ICTP's lead administrative agency under a tripartite agreement signed between UNESCO, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Italian government.

During the week of 15-19 March, a delegation of the University of Communications and Transport, Hanoi, visited the Centre for discussions on how to manage and operate a modern electronic library. Members of the delegation included Le Von Hoc (rector), Vu Duc Minh (head, External Relations Department), Nguyen Minh Hau (director, Information Library Centre) and Hoang Thi Minh Phuc (vice director, Information Library Centre).

Princeton University Press has published Sneaking a Look at God's Cards: Unraveling the Mysteries of Quantum Mechanics by GianCarlo Ghirardi, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Trieste and head of ICTP's Associates Programme. The book was originally published in Italy in 1997 by Il Saggiatore in Milan under the title Un'occhiata alle carte di Dio. The monograph explains quantum mechanics to lay readers, presenting the first general discussion of such topics as quantum cryptography and quantum computation. It has received warm praise from both scientists and literary critics. For additional information, see www.pup.princeton.edu.

A delegation from the Italian Foreign Ministry, led by under-secretaries Roberto Antonione, Mario Baccini and Margherita Boniver, visited ICTP on 5 March to learn more about its scientific activities and to discuss Trieste's candidacy for Expo 2008. Presentations were made by Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, director of ICTP; Edoardo Boncinelli, director, International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA); Graziano Bertogli, deputy managing director, International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS); Walter Gerbino, deputy rector, University of Trieste; Carlo Rizzuto, president, Sincrotrone Trieste; Renzo Rosei, president of the Scientific Advisory Council, Sincrotrone Trieste; and Maria Cristina Pedicchio, president, Area Science Park.

Science Consortium in Trieste
Thirty-four science institutions located in Trieste and the surrounding region, including ICTP, formally signed an accord calling for "greater coordination among national and international research centres in Trieste and Friuli-Venezia Giulia." The signing ceremony took place in the main auditorium of Area Science Park on 27 January. Roberto Antonione, Italy's deputy foreign minister; Guido Possa, Italy's deputy minister of education, and Riccardo Illy, governor of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, were in attendance. The consortium--which has been spearheaded by Maria Cristina Pedicchio, president of Area Science Park--hopes to improve cooperation among the region's scientific institutions and, ultimately, to develop joint projects of mutual interest. For additional information, see www.area.trieste.it.

Janet Varnier Retires

ICTP staff member Janet Varnier retired at the end of January. Born in Sydney, Australia, Varnier joined ICTP in 1966 as typist/secretary in the editorial section. During her first tenure at ICTP, which lasted a decade, she also worked for the fellowship and associateship programmes, administration and finance. She left the Centre for the first time in 1976 to care for her children. In 1981, she rejoined the Centre, employed initially in the director's office and then with the high energy physics group, where she was responsible for organising training courses. Scientists and staff congratulate Janet for her years of dedicated service to the Centre and wish her well in her retirement.

Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar, a world renowned condensed matter physicist and founder of the Centre for Liquid Crystal Research, Bangalore, India, died on 9 March. He was 73. Chandrasekhar came to ICTP on numerous occasions during his illustrious career. His last visit took place during a meeting on discotic liquid crystals in November 2002. The meeting was held in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the publication of Chandrasekhar's seminal article in the Indian physics journal Pramana, reporting the first synthesis of discotic liquid crystals, which have found a wide variety of applications, including in computer displays. Chandrasekhar, who received numerous honours for his accomplishments, was a fellow of the Royal Society and a founding fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

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