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News from ICTP 116 - Dateline
Mathematics in
Pakistan
The National Centre for Physics (NCP) organised the 12th Regional
Conference in Mathematical Physics, in cooperation with the Higher
Education Commission (HEC) and ICTP. The Conference took place
from 27 March to 1 April at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad,
Pakistan. Regional conferences on mathematical physics have been
held for the past 20 years on a rotating basis in Iran, Pakistan
and Turkey. The fields covered in this year's conference included
superstring theory, particle physics, relativity, astrophysics,
cosmology, plasma physics and mathematical physics. About 40 foreigners
and 20 Pakistanis made presentations.
In the Trib
The International Herald Tribune recently
published an article describing the efforts of ICTP's Aeronomy
and Radiopropagation Laboratory (ARPL) to provide developing countries
with low-cost, effective electronic communications through the
use of tin can antennas. To read the article, see the 28 February
2006 edition of the Tribune or contact sci_info@ictp.it.
King Faisal Award to Narasimhan
M.S. Narasimhan, long-time head of ICTP's mathematics group who retired in January 1999, was named the co-winner of the King Faisal International Prize for 2006. Narasimhan, who shared the prize with Britain's Simon Kirwan Donaldson, President of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and professor of mathematics at Imperial College, London, was honoured for his path-breaking research in strengthening the links between mathematics and physics. The prize, named after King Faisal of Saudi Arabia (1906-1975), carries a US$200,000 cash award. The ceremony took place in February in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dirac Medallists Honoured
ICTP Dirac Medallists Sergio Ferrara, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland, Daniel Freedman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, State University of New York (SUNY), Stony Brook, have been awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics. They are being honoured for their successful efforts in "constructing supergravity, the first supersymmetric extension of Einstein's theory of general relativity." The Dannie Heineman Prize is awarded jointly by the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Institute of Physics (AIP). Eighteen ICTP Dirac Medallists, including this year's winners, have now received this prestigious award.
Wireless in Print
Wireless Networking in the Developing World, co-authored by ICTP's Carlo Fonda and Marco Zennaro, Aeronomy and Radiopropagation Laboratory (ARPL) and Science Dissemination Unit (SDU), is a how-to guide for building, deploying and maintaining wireless information networks in rural areas of the developing world. The book can be downloaded under a Creative Commons license. It is also available in a print-on-demand format. See www.wndw.net.
2006 ICO/ICTP Award
Hector Manuel Moya-Cessa, Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE), Puebla, Mexico, has won the 2006 ICO (International Commission for Optics)/ICTP Award. The ceremony took place in the ICTP Main Lecture Hall during the Winter College on Quantum and Classical Aspects of Information Optics, held from 30 January to 10 February. Ari Friberg, president of ICO, presided. Moya-Cessa is being honoured for his research on the foundation of quantum optics and his involvement in organising research and training activities in this field in Latin America.
On the same occasion, ICTP scientist Gallieno Denardo received the SPIE Educator Award (see "Dateline", News from ICTP, Autumn 2005, p. 8).
Gallieno Denardo with SPIE Educator Award
March Meeting
ICTP Director K.R. Sreenivasan participated in the March Meeting of the American Physical Society in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where, on 13 March, he chaired and spoke at the session, "Scientists from Developing Countries: Is There an Effective Way to Support Meaningful Research?" ICTP Associate Zohra Ben Lakhdar (see "Profile", News from ICTP, Winter 2005-2006, p. 14) also spoke at the session. On the following day, Sreenivasan participated in the ACIPA (American Chapter of the Indian Physics Association) meeting. Other participants were Shobo Bhattacharya, Director, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), India, and Michael Cheetham, Study Director, Smithsonian Institution, USA.
Speakers at FIP session in Baltimore: K.R. Sreenivasan, Bernard
M'Passi Mabiala, Gary Steigman, Zohra Ben Lakhdar and Carlos Henrique
de Brito Cruz
Scoles Awarded Franklin Medal
Giacinto Scoles, Donner Professor of Science at Princeton
University, and Professor at the Departments of Biophysics and
Condensed Matter Physics at the International School for Advanced
Studies (SISSA), Trieste, has been awarded the 2006 Benjamin Franklin
Medal in Physics. He shares the Medal with J. Peter Toennies,
Associate Professor, Department of Physics, University of Göttingen,
Germany, and former Director of the Max-Planck-Institut für
Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Göttingen, Germany. The
award is being given to Scoles and Toennies for their development
of new techniques for studying molecules that involve embedding
them in ultra-cold helium droplets. Scoles has lectured at ICTP
on numerous occasions and has served as a course director of the
Stig Lundqvist Conferences. The medal is awarded by the Franklin
Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The ceremony took
place at the Franklin Institute on 27 April.
Earthquake Prediction Centre in Pakistan
The government of Pakistan has approved a plan to establish a centre for earthquake risk assessment and management. The centre, which will cater to the needs of South and Central Asia and the Middle East, will be located at the National Center for Physics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. ICTP is among the international organisations that the new centre will work with. Other partnering organisations include the International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics, Moscow, the University of California at Los Angeles and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Vladimir Keilis-Borok and Inessa Vorobieva, two well-known seismologists who have collaborated with ICTP's Structure and Non-Linear Dynamics of the Earth (SAND) group for more than 20 years, were part of a select group serving as consultants for the creation of the new centre.
Public Lectures Redux
Walter Kutschera, Institute of Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, University of Vienna, Austria, launched ICTP's 2006 public lecture series on 17 March with a presentation titled "Synchronizing Cultures in the Past: How to Combine Natural Sciences and Humanities." On 22 March, Fabio Toscano, an Italian physicist, spoke about his fellow countryman Gregorio Ricci Curbastro in a lecture titled "The Italian who Saved Einstein". The lecture, which was held at the University of Trieste, was organised in cooperation with the University's Department of Mathematics.
Walter Kutschera (right)
Duff Appointed
Michael Duff, a doctoral student of Abdus Salam, ICTP's founding director, has been appointed Principal of the Faculty of Physical Sciences at Imperial College, London, UK. Duff earned his doctorate from Imperial College in 1972. Before returning to his alma mater, Duff was the Oskar Klein Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan and the first Director of the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics. He has also been a professor of physics at Texas A&M University and a senior physicist at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory located in Geneva, Switzerland.
Michael Duff at the Salamfest, ICTP, 1993
NEWS FROM ASSOCIATES
Raphael Mukaro, ICTP Junior Associate 2002-2007 and head of
the Physics Department at Bindura University of Science in Bindura,
Zimbabwe, has been awarded the 2005 TWAS (The Academy of Sciences
for the Developing World) Young Scientist of the Year Award in
Zimbabwe. The award was cosponsored by the Research Council of
Zimbabwe. Mukaro is being honoured for his role in developing
powerful but inexpensive sensors, control systems and computer
software used for research and teaching.
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