Adnan Badran, UNESCO's Deputy Director General, has been involved with the ICTP for three decades. Today, he's working with ICTP administrators and staff to complete plans to place the Centre on a solid foundation for the 21st century.

The ICTP in the Post-Salam Era

Jordanian-born Adnan Badran, Deputy Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), joined UNESCO nine years ago. Trained as a biologist in America's "heartland"-at Oklahoma State University and Michigan State University-Badran was a driving force behind the dramatic expansion in Jordan's university system during the 1970s. In the 1980s, he served as Jordan's Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Education. He is currently the number-two official at UNESCO and a close advisor to Federico Mayor-Zaragoza, UNESCO's Director General. His position makes him a key point of contact for the ICTP.

Badran recently visited the Centre to speak at the Salam Memorial Meeting. While here, he met with the editorial staff of News from ICTP to discuss the Centre's past and future.

Q.: When did you become acquainted with the ICTP?

A.: After receiving my university degrees and working several years in the United States, I returned home to teach biology at the University of Jordan in Amman. I soon became involved in university administration, helping to establish Yarmouk University and Jordan's University for Science and Technology in the late 1960s, which was about the same time that Abdus Salam was launching the ICTP. Each year we sent two young physicists to Trieste to study at the Centre. That program marked the beginning of my relationship with Salam. We corresponded continuously. But I didn't actually get to meet Salam in person until 1980, when I invited him to give a keynote address to university graduates and receive an honorary doctorate before His Majesty King Hussein. From then on, we saw each other quite often. I would go to the ICTP while Salam would frequently come to Jordan to visit our universities.

Q.: How did your relationship with the ICTP evolve over time?

A.: Until I joined UNESCO in 1989, my ties with the ICTP were similar to those of other university scientists and administrators throughout the developing world. The Centre was a haven for our faculty and students-a place where, as one of the speakers at the Salam Memorial Conference said, scientists from the Third World could conduct first-class research without feeling like third-class citizens.

As Assistant Director General for Science-and then Deputy Director General-I became ICTP's main point of contact within UNESCO. I worked closely with Salam, especially during the Centre's financial crisis in the early 1990s. At the time, an extended delay in the Italian government's annual contribution to the ICTP placed the Centre at risk. I remember Salam coming to me and saying that he didn't have enough money to pay his staff. He wondered whether he could keep the doors of the Centre open.

ICTP's unmatched reputation among scientists in the Third World compelled UNESCO to help the Centre in any way that it could. In January 1991, we advanced ICTP its 1991 and 1992 annual contributions. That amounted to several hundred thousand dollars. We helped, but it was Iran's $3-million loan that finally eased the crisis. And only when the Italian government released its funds for the Centre in September did the situation truly stabilise.

Q.: What impact did the financial crisis have on the ICTP?

A.: No organization likes to experience a life-and-death crisis. Yet the dire situation the Centre faced in the early 1990s ultimately helped to set the stage for more stable funding. As many ICTP staff members know, before the crisis, funding from the Italian government was reviewed every four years. After the crisis, the Italian government signed a bill into law that made Italian funding for the Centre open-ended. The Centre's future became more secure than at any point in its history.

Q.: You helped spearhead the move of the ICTP from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO). What prompted this effort?

A.: By the late 1980s, Salam had come to believe that the ICTP's activities had moved beyond physics-particularly nuclear physics-into a variety of scientific disciplines.

As this evolution took place, Salam ultimately concluded that UNESCO would be a better fit than IAEA for the Centre's broadening efforts to improve university-based scientific education and training in the developing world. He reasoned that the IAEA's mandate largely focuses on issues related to nuclear energy. The IAEA, particularly the agency's Director General Hans Blix, agreed with this assessment.

Both agencies worked closely together over a two-year period to ensure a smooth transition. We focused on three major concerns. First, that the Centre staff not be penalised by the transition. Second, that IAEA's contribution to the Centre would continue at its current level and UNESCO would increase its contribution. And, third, that the ICTP would remain autonomous. I believe we have succeeded in our efforts. The ICTP has been firmly placed within the UNESCO framework while maintaining its association with the IAEA. The final step in the process will be the approval of ICTP staff procedures, which we hope to accomplish over the next few months.

Q.: How would you assess ICTP's current status?

A.: In many respects, the financial status of the Centre has never been healthier. The Italian contribution, which amounts to about $12.2 million a year, is secure; the IAEA has continued its annual grant of $1.7 million; and UNESCO, whose current annual contribution is about $375,000, will seek to match the IAEA's funding level gradually within the coming years. Other funding sources-the Kuwait Foundation for Science and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency-also appear likely to continue. In short, Salam's creation is a thriving reality. The Centre is here to stay.

Q.: What future challenges is the Centre likely to face?

A.: There are those who believe that the Centre should expand its mandate into areas, particularly in the applied sciences, currently favoured by both individual governments and international funding agencies. And, there are those who believe that the Centre should seek to excel in subject areas on which it has focused in the past-namely, theoretical physics and mathematics. I find myself in the second camp. The ICTP budget is adequate. But it is by no means lavish. An institution always runs the risk of spreading itself too thin if it moves into areas that will require substantial investments to succeed. If a funder comes along and says it will give the Centre several million dollars for a new program in basic or even applied science, the ICTP would be foolish to turn its back on the opportunity. But I don't think it should use existing funds to launch new initiatives. ICTP's current mandate is broad enough and the issues it now addresses are sufficiently complex to warrant the Centre's full attention.

Q.: How do you think the world views the ICTP?

A.: I agree with the speaker at the Salam meeting who said that the ICTP may be the best post-World War II example of international cooperation designed to improve conditions in the developing world. It is undoubtedly the most important organization for the promotion of science in the Third World. Having said that, I must add that we still have a long way to go and that the ICTP-and its offshoots in Korea, for example-will play a pivotal role in any future progress.

Economic and social globalisation will bring many benefits. But it will also create problems, particularly for scientists in the developing world who must run faster than ever to keep pace with advances in their fields. For many, the ICTP is not only a second home but one of the few places where they can continue to conduct state-of-the-art research. When Salam first broached the idea of an international centre for theoretical physics, he was viewed by many as a wild-eyed physicist. You only have to visit the ICTP-or talk to the thousands of scientists whose lives have been touched by the Centre-to realise how practical and level-headed he was.

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