Luciano Bertocchi spent virtually his entire career-some 30 years-at the ICTP. Last October, he retired from the Centre and returned to the University of Trieste. Bertocchi recently spoke to News from ICTP about his years of service to the institution.

Bertocchi Looks Back

I remember travelling back from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna with Abdus Salam in October 1990, carrying resignation letters for each of the Centre's staff members.

That's how Luciano Bertocchi recalls his worst moment at the Centre, an institution to which he has devoted 30 years of his life. Bertocchi, who retired last October, served as the Centre's Deputy Director for more than a decade.

"Salam and I decided not to sign the letters. Fortunately, we were able to receive a US$3-million bridge loan from Iran. The Italian government's annual contribution came through later that year, ending what was without doubt the most difficult period in ICTP's history."

Fortunately, for both Bertocchi and the Centre, the number of good times have far exceeded the number of bad times during his long and fruitful career.

Bertocchi's association with the Centre actually predates the creation of the ICTP. As a physicist, he attended the initial organizing conference that took place in June 1960 near the Castle of Miramare, a few hundred meters from the current location of the Centre.

"I remember encountering Salam for the first time. He was a young man with a striking accent and dark moustache. Although only in his mid thirties, he was already a well-known figure among physicists from around the world."

"I had received my degree from the University of Bologna just a few years before and was finishing my stint in the army. In fact, my uniform was still in my bag. During the meeting, I spoke to Salam only for a few moments but I was immediately impressed by his approachability, enthusiasm and determination."

It would take another four years of unflagging effort on the part of Salam to create the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, which set up shop in Trieste in 1964.

Three years later, Bertocchi rekindled his relationship with Salam after taking a teaching position with the Department of Physics at the University of Trieste.

"I chose Trieste instead of Bologna not only because it was closer to home-I was born and raised in Ugovizza, near Italy's border with Austria, about 2 hours from Trieste-but because I had faith in Salam's Centre. I just felt this city was the place to be if you wanted to pursue a career in theoretical physics in Italy."

Bertocchi initially worked at the Centre as a consultant, giving lectures and organising conferences. "At the time, the ICTP's permanent staff consisted of some 10 people. Abdus Salam, Paolo Budinich and John Strathdee were the only three in-house scientists. The rest of us were consultants."

"The ICTP was so small then that the staff often went to lunch as a group. At noontime, we would hike down to a seaside trattoria in Grignano overlooking the Adriatic Sea, have fresh fish and a salad, play a little table football and then return to work."

From those modest beginnings, the Centre has grown into an organization with a $20-million annual budget and 140 staff members. It now serves some 3,500 scientists from around the world each year.

Bertocchi was there to witness the Centre's most dramatic period of growth during the 1980s. It was under his supervision as the Centre's Deputy Director that much of the current administrative structure was put into place.

The Centre's enduring strengths, Bertocchi believes, have been built on three factors.

First, its ability to serve the needs of scientists from the developing world has given the ICTP an unique identity. At the same time, it has created an army of goodwill ambassadors from around the world who are always eager to praise the ICTP for the contributions that the institution has made to their careers.

Second, over the years, the Centre has developed an efficient system-and acquired an experienced staff-for overseeing workshops and conferences. As a result, ICTP is able to administer its research activities at a cost that is much cheaper than other institutions.

Third, the ICTP has always been willing to move quickly into new research areas as existing Centre topics have grown more mature and others have emerged as critical areas of study.

"The earliest example of this risk-taking attitude," Bertocchi notes, "took place in the late 1960s when the ICTP decided to shift a portion of its resources and staffing into condensed matter physics. That subdiscipline subsequently became one of the main research areas at the Centre along with high energy physics and mathematics."

"Later," Bertocchi observes, "the Centre explored opportunities in biophysics, medical physics, physics of the environment and physics and technology. The latter helped set the stage for the Centre's successful workshops and training activities in microprocessing. It also helped lay the groundwork for similar scientific activities in optics and lasers, which became some of the more popular programs at the ICTP during the late 1980s and early 1990s."

Bertocchi also notes that through the years, "It's been a difficult task for the Centre to maintain a delicate balance between research and training."

"I earnestly hope that we can continue to pursue both paths in the future," he adds. "After all, I don't think there's another institution anywhere in the world that has been able to organize training courses and workshops with the same efficiency and effectiveness. Both our sponsors in Rome and our visiting scientists from around the world-particularly those from the South-have found these activities to be enormously valuable."

As for himself, Bertocchi plans an active retirement. He has returned to the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of Trieste, where he will again be a full-time professor. At the same, he will continue to offer his expertise and advice to the ICTP as a consultant for both the Director's Office and the Library.

"The Centre has been the focal point of my worklife since I began my career. It now begins a new era and I would like to help in any way I can to ensure its continued success."

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