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News from ICTP 113 - Monitor

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UNESCO Director General at ICTP
Matsuura

The director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koïchiro Matsuura, visited ICTP on 17 May. Matsuura spoke in the Main Lecture Hall and presented the 2004 ICTP Prize to Bernardo Gabriel Mindlin. Other dignitaries who participated in the event included Asaf Hajiyev, secretary, Department of Physical, Mathematical and Technical Sciences, Azerbaijan Republic; C.N.R. Rao, president, Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS); Renato Angelo Ricci, honorary president, Italian Physical Society; and Victorio Maria José Taccetti, Argentina's ambassador in Rome. Following the ceremony, Matsuura met with ICTP's director and the heads of the Centre's scientific groups, as well as the president and executive director of TWAS, to learn more about the organisations' activities.




2004 ICTP Prize Lecture

Mindlin
ICTP Prize winner Bernardo Gabriel Mindlin presented the 2004 ICTP Prize Lecture on 17 May. Mindlin, an internationally recognised expert in bird physiology and vocalisation, spoke on "The Physics and Neural Control of Birdsong." A professor of physics at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina and author of more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, Mindlin has made major contributions to our understanding of nonlinear dynamical systems in such diverse fields as solar activity, lasers, neural modelling, speech recognition and birdsongs. Mindlin's lecture examined the physical mechanisms at work in the melodious creation of a birdsong and the neural instructions needed to drive this tuneful process. The 2004 ICTP Prize was given in honour of Arthur Taylor Winfree, a distinguished professor of theoretical physics and Regents' professor at the University of Arizona, USA, who died of brain cancer on 5 November 2002.




Badran Appointed Prime Minister
Badran

Adnan Badran, former deputy director general of UNESCO, Paris, France, and former vice president of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), has been named prime minister of Jordan. King Abdullah made the announcement on 5 April. Badran, who has visited ICTP and TWAS on numerous occasions, held the position of president of Philadelphia University, Amman, Jordan, prior to his appointment. He has also served as minister of agriculture, minister of education and secretary general of Jordan's Higher Council for Science and Technology (HCST). News from ICTP published an extensive interview with Badran in 1998, when he was in Trieste to participate in the Abdus Salam Memorial Meeting. See "The ICTP in the Post-Salam Era," News from ICTP, Winter 1998, p. 4-5.




ICTP Director at Nathiagali College

Nathiagali
ICTP director K.R. Sreenivasan travelled to Pakistan to help celebrate the 30th International Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary Needs, held from 27 June to 13 July. The event, which was launched by ICTP founding director Abdus Salam, is designed to promote scientific dialogue and provide opportunities for cooperation and joint research programmes. This year's activities, highlighted by the presence of Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf at the opening ceremony, focussed on a broad range of fields, including general relativity, cosmology, particle physics, nanoscience, chemistry, biology and seismology.




UNU/IAS Director in Trieste
Abdul Hamid Zakri
, director of the United Nations University's (UNU) Institute of Advanced Studies, headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, visited ICTP on 7 April to explore possible avenues of cooperation with ICTP. He was accompanied by Max Bond, executive officer, UNU Office of the Rector, and Caterina Casullo, head, UNU Office in Europe, Paris. It marked the first meeting between the two organisations. Zakri will soon sign a memorandum of understanding between ICTP and UNU designed to lead to joint activities and other cooperative ventures.




Chinese Delegation
Chinese_Delegation

A Chinese delegation, led by Cheng Jinpei, vice minister of China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), met with the director's special advisor, Claudio Tuniz, and other ICTP staff on 24 May. The group discussed possible areas of cooperation between China's scientific community and ICTP, especially in the area of nanotechnology.




MOU with Azerbaijan
Hajiyev
From left: K.R. Sreenivasan, Asaf Hajiyev and Seifallah Randjbar-Daemi

Asaf Hajiyev, secretary of the Department of Physical, Mathematical and Technical Sciences of the Azerbaijan Republic, signed an agreement with ICTP on 17 May 2005 intended to foster greater cooperation between the Centre and Azerbaijan's scientific community.




UK Ambassador
Roberts
From left: K.R. Sreenivasan, John Dodds and Sir Ivor Roberts

The ambassador of the United Kingdom to Italy, Sir Ivor Roberts, visited ICTP on 28 April to learn more about Trieste and its scientific institutions. Accompanied by the honorary British consul in Trieste, John Dodds, he met ICTP director K.R. Sreenivasan who outlined ICTP's research and training activities.




Onime SCS Acting Head
Onime_and_Nobile
Clement Onime (first from left) and Alvise Nobile (first from right) with
IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei, September 1999

Clement Onime has been appointed acting head of the Scientific Computer Section, replacing Alvise Nobile who has stepped down after more than 20 years as the leader of the group. Onime, who was born in Ubiaja, Nigeria, obtained a master's of science degree in electronic and electrical engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria in 1998, where he also worked as a network system administrator and lecturer until 2000. From October 1998 to October 1999 he was a visiting scientist at ICTP. He joined ICTP in February 2000 as systems and network analyst.




Opecca Retires
Opecca
Eleonora Opecca
, head of ICTP's Passport and Visa Information Office (see "Monitor", News from ICTP, Autumn 2003, p. 12), has retired. Born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Eleonora began her career at ICTP in 1985 with the Office of Associate Members, Federated Institutes and Italian Laboratories. A decade later, she was appointed head of the ICTP Visa Office, where she remained until her retirment. Before coming to ICTP, Opecca held positions with South African Airways in Johannesburg and the US Consulate in Trieste. ICTP wishes her well in her retirement.



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