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News from ICTP 90 - Monitor
IAEA Director General Visits ICTP
The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, visited ICTP on 3 September. He was accompanied by Sueo Machi, IAEA's Deputy Director General, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, and H.S. Cherif, IAEA's Head of the Office of Programme Support and Evaluation. The Director General met with ICTP Director Miguel Virasoro; heads of ICTP's scientific research groups, external support services and administration; and Centre associates and diploma students. He also toured the Centre's facilities, including its lecture halls, library and computer facilities. In addition, the Director General addressed ICTP staff and scientists in the Main Lecture Hall, where he expressed his support for strengthening the Agency's relationship with ICTP-a relationship dating back to the Centre's earliest days. Abdus Salam officially launched his campaign to create the Centre in 1960 at the IAEA's Fourth General Conference. The Centre became a reality four years later under the auspices of the IAEA.
The UNESCO External Evaluation Team toured the Centre on 9-10 July. The team, which consists of eight members, was headed by M.A.J. Mariscotti, President of the Directorate of the National Agency for the Promotion of Science and Technology in Argentina. Members of the team met with the ICTP director and the heads of the Centre's research groups. In addition, they talked with ICTP associates, postdocs and diploma students, and received a brief tour of the Centre's library and computer facilities. The evaluation is part of UNESCO's biennial evaluation plan.
Xu Hai, Scientific Counsellor at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Rome, Italy, visited ICTP on 12 July. He was accompanied by Sun Chengyong, the Counsellor's First Secretary in Science, who received his Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Parma with help from ICTP and the International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS). On 27 July, Andrew W. Reynolds, Counsellor for Environment, Science and Technology at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Italy, visited the ICTP.
Paul N. Butcher,
70, Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick, UK, and a
founding father of the ICTP condensed matter theory group, died
on 6 August 1999. Paul earned degrees in mathematics and solid
state physics from Imperial College, London, and worked 16 years
for the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern, UK, before joining
the department of physics at the University of Warwick in 1967
as the university's first professor of theoretical physics. He
held that position until his recent retirement. Paul's research
spanned many areas, including semiconductors, amorphous systems,
non-linear optics and transport theory. His involvement with ICTP
began in the 1970s, when he joined Trieste's emerging cadre of
condensed matter people-including John Ziman, Stig Lundqvist,
Norman March, and later Mario Tosi, Yu Lu and myself. Our goals
were to nurture good research and good contacts among Northern
and Southern scientists. Paul is remembered fondly as one of the
most active directors of ICTP workshops, sitting unselfishly through
every lecture and finding time for everyone. His presence at ICTP
and the larger world of science will be remembered by many for
many years to come. And so will the many cheerful moments-a good
laugh, a quiet discussion over coffee, a dinner on the Carso.
Paul was an extraordinarily nice human being. We were not at all
prepared to lose him and he was not prepared to lose us either.
When asked what his retirement plans were, he said he really had
no other interests than physics. We rejoiced, for it meant that
we would see him at ICTP and benefit from his presence and wisdom
long into the future. It was not to be. Nonetheless, the contributions
Paul made to science and the help he gave to less fortunate colleagues
will remain with us forever.
Erio Tosatti
International School for Advanced Studies
ICTP Condensed Matter Group
