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News from ICTP 109 - Monitor

monitor

 


The Village Centre
ICTP is more than a centre. In fact, it's more like a village. And one of the offices that play a critical role in the Centre's 'village' is the Housing Office.

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"Our office is part hotel, part rental agency, part hospitality centre and part events planner," explains Dora Photiou, who has headed the five-person office since 1997. The other members of the staff are Tiziana Bottazzi, Elisabetta Capello, Stefano Coglievina and Michela Filippini.
The main function of the Housing Office is managing the availability of rooms at the Adriatico and Galileo guesthouses, which together can house about 200 guests each night. The office also has signed special low-rate agreements with about 30 hotels in Trieste and the surrounding area to accommodate the overflow of visitors during peak periods. Office staff also assist in the preparation of about 200 leases a year from a database of 1000 private apartments whose owners would like to rent to the Centre's long-term visitors, including ICTP scientific and international administrative staff.
"One of the things we have noticed over the past few years," says Bottazzi, the office's senior staff person with more than 10 years' experience, "is that our visitors have become much more eager to stay at our guesthouses than to be placed in off-campus hotels."
Photiou notes that "there are two reasons for the increased interest in on-campus housing."
"First, over the past five years, the Centre has invested a good deal of money in upgrading its housing facilities. We have added ceiling fans, refrigerators and internet connections to every room-and all rooms that had three beds now have two, providing additional privacy."
"Second, over the past two years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of hosted activities taking place at ICTP. While the participants are not officially part of the Centre's research and training activities and while the costs for these events is covered by the hosts, these visitors nevertheless often ask to stay in our guesthouses."
The result has been that the number of overnight guests rose from 4100 in 2000 to 6100 to 2003. In 2004, it's likely the number will reach 7000.
In addition to ensuring that ICTP visitors have a restful place to stay, the Housing Office also oversees the Centre's cafeterias and bars, working out the terms of reference and helping select the private vendors who provide the services. The office also manages the numerous coffee breaks, buffet luncheons and official dinners that take place during the conferences and workshops-more than 800 'hospitality' events each year.
"In 2005," Photiou says, "we plan to improve the facilities even more by renovating the bathrooms, which are 20 years old, and purchasing new beds (yes, they will be wider) and new furniture that should give our visitors additional storage and table-top space."
"Our surveys show that more than 90 percent of our visitors rate our service either excellent or good," says Bottazzi.
And what is the number-one complaint among the 10 percent of visitors who say the service is only sufficient? It's roommates who snore. "We're trying to do something about that as well," Bottazzi asserts. "The Centre recently purchased several boxes of ear plugs."




The Photo Centre
ICTP medical officer Sandro Gallucci recently displayed his first-ever photographic exhibition in downtown Trieste. 'Snaps' offered a colourful offbeat perspective--literally snapshots--of the doctor's travels in Italy, France, and Austria. The photographs of Maria-Paz Alessandroni, wife of ICTP Mathematics Group head Le Dung Trang, were shown in the Main Building from 28 April to 21 May. "Mind's Eye" uses infrared film, sepia- and silver-tones, and experimental paint-on-print techniques to produce impressionistic, dreamlike images. Alessandroni, who studied photography at San Mateo County Community College in California, has worked as a photographer and photography teacher in the United States and Europe.




Science for Society
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A roundtable discussion on 'Science and Research for Social and Political Advancement' took place on 7 May in ICTP's Main Lecture Hall. Co-organised by Lions Club Trieste Host and ICTP, the event included remarks by Settimio Carlo Aiello, president of Lions Club Trieste Host; Roberto Antonione, undersecretary of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Roberto Cosolini, councillor of Regione Friuli-Venezia-Giulia for Labour, Training, University and Research; Harald Kreid, executive secretary of the Central European Initiative (CEI); Mario Pines, vice president of Lions Club Trieste Host; Domenico Romeo, rector of the University of Trieste; and Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, director of ICTP.




ICTP Prize Awarded
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Indian Ambassador to Italy, H. Som and Manindra Agrawal

Manindra Agrawal, winner of the 2003 ICTP Prize, officially received the award and delivered the ICTP Prize Lecture on 27 May in ICTP's Main Lecture Hall. Agrawal, who is a mathematician with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, is currently on leave conducting research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. For additional information, see www.ictp.it and www.cse.iitk.ac.in.




Expo 2008
ICTP director Katepalli R. Sreenivasan spoke before the General Assembly of the International Exhibition Bureau (BIE) in Paris on 23 June. His presentation, drawing on Trieste's proposed theme for Expo 2008, examined the critical role that ICTP and Trieste's other scientific institutions have played in the "mobility of knowledge" over the past four decades. Sreenivasan noted that the mobility of knowledge is not just an intellectual exercise but an effective way to address some of the critical challenges faced by humanity. Trieste is competing with two other cities--Thessaloniki, Greece, and Zaragoza, Spain--to host Expo 2008. BIE will make its final selection in December.




Appointment
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Seifallah Randjbar-Daemi has been named special assistant to the director, a post that will allow him, among other things, to serve as "a sounding board for matters concerning the interface between the Centre and the developing world." In addition to his new responsibilities, Randjbar-Daemi will continue to head ICTP's High Energy Physics group.




India-ICTP Connections
Manmohan Singh
, India's new Prime Minister who was appointed following the surprise victory of the Congress Party in national elections in May, visited ICTP in 1988 in his capacity as Secretary General of the South Commission to attend a meeting of the South Commission's Working Group on Science and Technology. The South Commission was established in 1987 under the chairmanship of Julius Nyerere, former President of Tanzania and long-time friend of ICTP's Founding Director Abdus Salam.




From Science to Sophia
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Sophia Loren in a photo by Massimo Silvano

ICTP's photographer, Massimo Silvano, not only chronicles the Centre's scientific activities, but has also gained notoriety as a photographer of boats and ships. In June, he enjoyed an assignment with an extra bonus when he photographed Sophia Loren who was 'baptising' the world's largest cruise ship, MSC Opera, in Genoa, Italy. The ship was built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint Nazaire, France.





IN MEMORIAM

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Guido Gerin, a key player in the early history of ICTP, died on 26 April. He was 83. A professor of law at the University of Trieste, Gerin served as the Italian government's representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria, between 1964 and 1974, ICTP's first decade of existence. In the early 1980s, Gerin returned to Trieste to head the Istituto internazionale per i diritti dell'uomo (International Institute for Human Rights), created under the umbrella of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He devoted the latter years of his career to examining the ethical and legal problems associated with genetics research and biotechnology.

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Noor Mohammad, an ICTP postdoctoral fellow 1987-1989, Associate 1990-1995, and frequent visitor, died on 13 April. He was two days shy of his 53rd birthday. Born in Raniwah, Pakistan, Noor Mohammad received his undergraduate and master's degrees in mathematics from Islamabad University (later to be renamed Quaid-i-Azam University) during the 1970s. He then taught at the Federal Government College in Islamabad for a brief period before receiving a scholarship to attend Moscow University, former USSR, where he earned a doctorate in mathematics in 1983. He subsequently returned to Quaid-i-Azam University where he remained for nearly two decades. A noted scholar in functional analysis, Noor Mohammad published more than 30 articles in refereed international journals during the course of his career.



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