Welcome to News from ICTP, the Centre's quarterly publication. It's been a while but we're glad to be back-so glad, in fact, that we've given ourselves a new look.

To help serve your needs, we've decided to divide each issue into a variety of sections or departments. What's New, a brief descriptive summary of the contents, will open each issue. A Commentary, a bylined essay with a point of view, will follow.

Features will highlight important Centre and Centre-related activities; Dateline will describe international events of importance to the ICTP; and Monitor will examine recent "comings and goings" within Miramare's scientific community.

Our Report on Reports section will summarise the results of recent ICTP workshops and conferences, while our Profile section will present brief portraits of ICTP scientists and support staff. We'll offer a preview of upcoming Centre activities in our concluding section, What's Next. And, on the back page, we'll provide quick references on how to contact us through fax, e-mail and the Internet.

Teamwork is critical to the success of any publication. So I'm delighted to let you know that we have an excellent editorial team. Fabio Pagan, a veteran science writer and journalist who knows the Centre first hand, is our staff writer; Anna Triolo, who has worked for the Centre's Scientific Information Office (SIO) for more than a decade, will serve as our managing editor; and Giuliana Gamboz, SIO's statistician, will help us transmit the latest and most accurate data about the Centre. I will serve as the newsletter's editor, having recently joined the ICTP as its Communications Director. I come to the Centre via The University of Tennessee and Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, where I was a science writer and editor for the past 15 years.

We'll be working hard on News from ICTP, but we won't be able to do the job alone. That's why we're asking for your help. If you're participating in a project that you think others would like to hear about, please let us know; if you're involved in an upcoming event that you think others would find of interest, don't neglect to tell us; if you recently published an essay or report, please send us a copy; and if you would like to write an article for us, we're here to help.

The ultimate goal of News from ICTP is to give readers a broader understanding of this unique scientific facility, which has served the needs of researchers for more than three decades and continues to play a critical role in the advancement of science throughout the developing world. We think it's a worthwhile goal. We hope you do too.

Daniel Schaffer

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