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News from ICTP 84 - Dateline
Peter Goddard, Master of St. John's College at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and David Olive, Research Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Wales in Swansea also in the United Kingdom, were awarded the ICTP's Dirac Medal on 26 March. Goddard and Olive were honoured for their contributions to string theory. Following the ceremony, the award winners presented a public lecture titled "Strings, Monopoles and Duality." The Dirac Medal, first presented in 1985, is designed to recognise outstanding contributions to the fields of theoretical physics and mathematics. It is named in honour of Paul A.M. Dirac, one of the fathers of quantum mechanics. Dirac, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933, was a staunch friend of the ICTP.
Participants in ICTP's School on the Use of Radio for Digital Communications, which was held last January, not only explored theories and concepts in the classroom but witnessed a down-to-earth field demonstration. The latter took place when the participants observed a computerised transfer of data and then viewed a videoconference over a microwave link set up between the Centre's Miramare campus and downtown Trieste. The demonstration was made possible with the help of ACEGAS, the local water, electricity and gas company. Some 40 students from 23 developing countries attended the School, which was cosponsored by the International Union of Radio Science in Gent, Belgium, and the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Switzerland.
In February, ICTP Staff Associate Julian Chela-Flores, a recipient of the UNESCO Chair of Philosophy, spoke about "man's place in the universe" at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela. The UNESCO Chair sponsors presentations by noted scientists and intellectuals in effort to promote the sharing of knowledge among researchers, teachers and students. Specifically, the program seeks to apply "the rigours of philosophical thinking to the problems of the present-day world." UNESCO Chairs in Philosophy have been established in Caracas, Paris and Santiago (Chile). Chela-Flores, who is a biophysicist, spoke about the current state of astrobiology, a new avenue of scientific inquiry that examines the origins, evolution and prospects for life in near and distant places throughout the universe.
The ICTP Chapter in China recently published the first edition of its newsletter. The Chapter, established in 1996 by China's State Council (the government's executive branch), seeks to promote cooperation and academic exchange between Chinese scientists and the ICTP. Later this year, the Chapter will help sponsor the Ninth International Symposium on Physics of Materials. The meeting will take place in Guilin, in southern China. Other sponsors include the ICTP, National Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences. China's ICTP Chapter is the second of its kind. The first was established in India in 1993.
Training and Research in Italian Laboratories 1983-1997
| Applications | 6365 |
| Grants awarded | 1109 |
| Fellows | 771 |
| Person-years | 843 |
| Countries represented | 67 |
| Laboratories involved | 312 |
| Publications submitted | 2155 |
Launched in 1983, the Abdus Salam ICTP Programme for Training and Research in Italian Laboratories (TRIL) offers a hands-on "experimental" counterpoint to the Centre's theoretical research and lecture-based training. TRIL enables ICTP-affiliated researchers from the developing world, who stay up to one year, to work side-by-side with scientists in universities, governmental agencies and industrial research centres located throughout Italy. Funding comes largely from the Italian government. Close cooperation exists between TRIL and Italian research institutions, including CNR (National Research Council), INFN (National Institute for Nuclear Physics), ENEA (Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Environment) and ANPA (National Agency for Environmental Control). For additional information, please contact the TRIL secretariat at itlabs@ictp.trieste.it.
Ram Man Shreshtha, Professor of Physics at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, has been elected a member of Nepal's national parliament. Shreshtha was an ICTP Regular Associate Member from 1982 to 1994. During that time, he visited the Centre on eight different occasions.
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