Today ICTP Diploma Course graduates total more than 250. Some have returned to their home countries to teach; others have gone to graduate schools in Europe and the United States earning master's and doctorate degrees; still others are about to graduate with advanced degrees.
By almost any measure, the ICTP Diploma Course has been a success. But even more impressive than the programme's past track record is the impact that the graduates are likely to have both at home and abroad in the near future. That's because many Diploma Course graduates are only now beginning their careers, having spent time since receiving their ICTP Diplomas acquiring additional scientific training as graduate students and post docs.
As Subodh Shenoy, coordinator of the Diploma Course in condensed matter physics, notes: "The true measure of the Diploma Course can only be assessed in the years ahead as our young graduates begin to leave their mark as researchers and teachers. Many ICTP Diploma Course graduates will soon be teaching students of their own. That will have a rippling effect on scientific capacity-building across the globe, particularly in the developing world."
The ICTP Diploma Course began as a grand idea wrapped mundanely in a brief office memo. On 18 March 1989, Abdus Salam, the founding director of ICTP, distributed a one-page statement to ICTP staff and consultants saying that he "would be in favour of setting up a 'certificate' course in various disciplines..." His idea called for "six courses" to be "given by outsiders" and "attended by participants who come to the Centre for other activities. Such persons, upon passing an examination, would be given a certificate."
"This idea," he observed, "may be the beginning of something of interest."
Within two years, Salam's 'something-of-interest' memo would be turned into the ICTP Diploma Course.
To fully appreciate the circumstances in which the Diploma Course came into being, it would be useful to step back in time to examine the state of science at the Centre and in the developing world a decade ago.
1989 marked the 'silver anniversary' of ICTP. During this 25-year period, the Centre's training programmes had gained an international reputation, particularly among scientists in the developing world. At the same time, research programmes, although small, were earning increasingly high marks from colleagues throughout the world.
It was in this overall environment of steady progress that Salam suggested ICTP consider launching a certificate programme for young scientists from the world's poorest developing countries--most notably, students who had received bachelor's or master's degrees but who had little opportunity to continue their education at home or travel abroad.
The initial response from ICTP staff and consultants was less than enthusiastic. Here is a sampling of early sentiments towards the idea:
- The initiative would create a remarkable burden.
- It would conflict with existing programmes next door at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA).
- Students will not have sufficient background for attending the courses.
- It is not feasible and would be thin in content.
- It is plain nonsense. It gives no background worth mentioning and could damage the credibility of ICTP.
- The proposal is ridiculous.
Despite this initial round of internal opposition, Salam persisted--believing that the proposed certificate programme could help reduce the large deficit in scientific knowledge and skills in what he called the "real" South (countries with annual per capita incomes of less than US$400). At the same time, he was convinced that the initiative was a way of dealing with one of the Centre's most significant shortcomings: bringing young scientists from the developing world's weakest and poorest countries to the Centre without compromising the quality of training and research that took place here and had served as the foundation of ICTP's success.
Although convinced of the merits of his initial proposal, Salam reshaped the original plan in two fundamental ways in response to the criticisms from staff and consultants.
First, he agreed with a recommendation made most forcefully by Seifallah Randjbar-Daemi and Kumar Narain, staff members in the high energy physics group, that the programme "should be open to all students from the developing world" even if "special consideration was given to students from the 'real' South." Only such an arrangement, they contended, would create a pool of candidates large enough to ensure the quality of instruction and learning that everyone sought.
Second, in response to criticisms that 'certificate' courses would create a 'soft' curriculum that would undermine the programme's long-term value to students and pose a potential risk to the Centre's reputation, Salam agreed to redesign the proposal into a more structured programme consisting of one year of intensive course work, a dissertation and a final examination.
As a result, the original proposal for 'certificate' courses was transformed into a 'diploma' course modelled in part on the diploma course in applied optics, mathematical physics, quantum fields, and semiconductor science and technology offered by Imperial College in the United Kingdom. ICTP's Diploma Course, in contrast, would be offered in the Centre's three major research fields--high energy physics, condensed matter physics and mathematics--and, in line with the Centre's historic mandate, it would be made available only to students from the developing world.
With the staff and consultants on board, arrangements for the first Diploma Course class were quickly put in place. The external announcement for the course was distributed in the summer 1990; applications were closed in February 1991; the first round of successful candidates was selected in March; and the full roster of students was announced by the end of May.
ICTP staff member Yu Lu, who was appointed the first overall coordinator of the Diploma Course, remembers it as a frantic time. "Not only did we have to sort through more than 800 applications, but we found it necessary to fine tune the review process as we went along. For example, initial plans called for bringing finalist candidates to ICTP for interviews until we realised that the cost of air tickets would be prohibitive."
Concetta Mosca, who was asked to serve as the secretary of the programme (a post that she has held ever since), recalls the logistical challenges created during the first months of operation. "Computers and copiers had to be set up, lecture and conference rooms reserved, contracts for lecturers arranged, and housing for students found. We realised that participants in the Diploma Course--young students who were often leaving their home countries (sometimes their villages) for the first time--would need more assistance from ICTP scientists and staff than other visitors. For many, this was not just an educational experience but a cultural experience as well."
The first year included the participation of 22 students: 11 in high energy physics and 11 in condensed matter physics. In 1992, 10 students in mathematics were added to the programme.
Over the past decade, the Diploma Course has responded to changes within the disciplines. As a result, certain course topics have been dropped while others have been added. Nevertheless, the original structure of the programme remains remarkably the same.
"The students are better than ever," notes Shenoy, "and the programme's reputation has grown as our graduates' performance in universities in the United States and Europe has earned high marks from professors and institutions. Today it's not uncommon for faculty from prominent schools to contact us to see if our students would be interested in applying to their institutions for masters' or doctorate degrees."
"What's most rewarding about the Diploma Course programme," adds Shenoy, "is not just the knowledge that these young people acquire during the year that they spend here in intensive study, but how the students grow in confidence as individuals."
"In fact, the programme's greatest strength may be that it allows students from poor, far away places to measure themselves against international standards of achievement. As they learn to hone their analytical skills and improve their ability to present their findings to their peers, they begin to attain a wider view of the world and their place in it. It may sound a bit inflated, but the Diploma Course changes peoples' lives. That, in turn, gives our students the opportunity to use the knowledge and skills they have acquired at ICTP to change the world in which they live."

MODEL DIPLOMAS
Based on last year's successful experimental 'test run,' ICTP and SISSA will launch a joint two-year Master's Degree Programme, "Modeling and Simulation of Complex Realities." The programme's initial class will begin their studies this autumn. Students who successfully complete the first year of the programme will receive a Diploma similar to the one that has been offered by ICTP in high energy physics, condensed matter physics and mathematics for the past decade. This marks the first significant expansion of the ICTP Diploma Course since its launch a decade ago. For additional information about this ICTP/SISSA joint initiative, please see www.ictp.trieste.it/~mastercr.

DIPLOMA COURSE GRADUATES
While aggregate numbers may be the best way to assess the Diploma Course's impact (more than 250 students from some 50 countries have received Diploma Course certificates since the programme's inception a decade ago), the distinct career paths of the graduates reveal a great deal about how the experience has shaped the careers of a generation of young scientists who have participated in this unique ICTP activity. Here's a sampling of where 10 students came from and where they have gone since their stay in Trieste:

Micah Okechukwu Osilike, class of 1992-1993, arrived at ICTP from the Department of Mathematics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he had earned a master's degree in 1988. After completing the Diploma Course, he returned to the University of Nigeria for additional studies, receiving a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1994. He has chosen to remain there ever since as a teacher and researcher.

Nguyen Hoa Hong, class of 1993-1994, came to Trieste from the Institute of Physics, National Centre for Scientific Research, Hanoi, Viet Nam, where she had received a master of science degree. Upon completing the Diploma Course, she returned home for one year before continuing her studies at the Japanese Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Hokuriku and Ishikawa, where she earned a doctorate this February. She is now a post doc in Leipzig, Germany.

Armando Villares Ferrer, class of 1993-94, arrived at ICTP from the Universidad de Oriente in Santiago de Cuba, where he obtained a bachelor of science degree (Licenciado en Fisica) in 1992. He returned home after the Diploma Course. In 1995, he was granted leave to continue his studies at the University of Campinas, Brazil, where he is currently completing his Ph.D. thesis.

Maya Chhetri, class of 1994-1995, received a master's degree in physics from Tribhuvan University, Armit Science Campus, Kathmandu, Nepal, in 1991, before being selected a Diploma Course student. After her one-year stay in Trieste, she went to Mississippi State University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Mississippi, USA, earning a Ph.D. in 1999. She now holds a tenure track position at the University of North Carolina, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.

José Francisco Morales Morera, class of 1994-1995, earned degrees from the Institute of Cybernetics, Mathematics and Physics, University of Havana, Cuba, and a diploma certificate from Karlova University, Prague, Czech Republic, before becoming an ICTP Diploma Course student. After completing his one year of study at the Centre, he continued his close collaboration with ICTP scientists while earning a doctorate in physics from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA). Since the autumn 2000, he has been a postdoc at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Ntoi Paul Rapapa, class of 1994-1995, came to Trieste from the Department of Physics, National University of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho, where he had graduated with a bachelor of science degree in 1993. Following his successful participation in the Diploma Course, he returned to the National University of Lesotho for a brief time before entering the University of Manchester, UK, where he received a doctorate in 1999. Today he is a lecturer at the Department of Physics, National University of Lesotho.

Badis Ydri, class of 1995-1996, arrived in Trieste with a degree in advanced studies from the Institute of Physics, University of Constantine, Algeria. After earning his ICTP Diploma, he was accepted for graduate study to Syracuse University, USA, where he is expected to obtain a Ph.D. in physics this autumn.

Nirina Lovasoa Randrianarivony, class of 1997-98, received her M.Sc. in 1996 from the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. Immediately after obtaining her ICTP Diploma certificate, she joined the Department of Mathematics at Texas A&M University as a teaching assistant, where she is now finishing her Ph.D. studies.

Maher Abdullah Fuad Attal, class of 1998-1999, received a bachelor of science degree in 1997 from the Department of Physics, An-Najah National University, Nablus, West Bank. After completing the Diploma Course, he became a fellow at the Elettra synchrotron facility in Trieste. Today he is working on the SESAME project through a one-year fellowship sponsored by the Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation du Rayonnement Electromagnétique (LURE), Paris, France.

Adriana Mercedes Sanchez Lotero, class of 1999-2000, has been working towards a Ph.D. at the Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Physik fester Stoffe in Dresden, Germany, since September 2000, when she completed the ICTP Diploma Course in condensed matter physics. She arrived at ICTP with a master of science degree in physics from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Santa Fe de Bogota.

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