ICTP in Brief January-February 2007

[sci_info]

    ICTP IN BRIEF

Bi-monthly unabridged listing of news published on http://news.ictp.it/ 
<http://news.ictp.it>


*9/1/2007*


      First 2007 Activity <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=211>

The 13th International Workshop on Computational Physics and Materials 
Science: Total Energy and Force Methods 
<http://cdsagenda5.ictp.trieste.it/full_display.php?smr=0&ida=a06178> 
will take place from 11 to 13 January in the ICTP Main Lecture Hall, 
marking the Centre's first activity for 2007. About 300 participants 
will be in attendance. The activity will focus on the electronic 
structure of complex systems, both in theory and practice. The Workshop 
is co-sponsored by the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) 
and the INFM DEMOCRITOS National Simulation Centre, Italy.


*15/1/2007*


      Lectures over the Internet <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=212>

The course "Synchrotron Radiation for Materials Science Applications" is 
taught at UC Berkeley by David Attwood, a recognized authority in 
lithography and microscopy, and in the fabrication of related optical 
systems. The course reviews fundamentals, techniques, and applications 
of synchrotron radiation, with emphasis on the extended ultraviolet and 
soft-x-ray range. A useful, up-to-date introduction for graduate 
students in materials science and related disciplines with a specific 
interest in applications and instrumentation.
Lectures are webcasted live on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. 
(Pacific time), during the period January 16 - May 8, 2007, and 
electronically archived for later viewing. The Webpage of the course 
includes the titles of the lectures with links to the Webcasts; lectures 
are free, just log on: http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/AST/srms/.


*16/1/2007*


      Poincare Conjecture <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=213>

The proof by Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman of Poincaré 
Conjecture first presented in 2002 and subsequently confirmed by fellow 
mathematicians has been hailed as the scientific breakthrough of 2006 by 
the international journal /Science/. Among the earliest groups seeking 
to verify the proof were mathematicians participating in ICTP's Summer 
School and Conference on Geometry and Topology of 3-Manifolds 
<http://cdsagenda5.ictp.it/full_display.php?ida=a04195>, held in June 
2005. Perelman also received the Fields Medal, mathematics' most 
prestigious award, for his discovery. But the iconoclast mathematician 
refused to attend the awards ceremony held at the International Congress 
of Mathematicians in Madrid in August 2006.


      Hilda Cerdeira APS Fellow <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=214>

Hilda Cerdeira, a former ICTP staff scientist, has been named Fellow of 
the American Physical Society. Cerdeira was a member of ICTP's Condensed 
Matter group from 1986 to 2004. She was also responsible for the 
Electronic Journals Delivery Service (eJDS) 
<http://sdu.ictp.it/ep/ejds.html>, an ICTP-sponsored effort to provide 
scientists in the world's poorest countries electronic access to the 
most current literature in their fields of study. APS is one of the 
largest and most eminent associations of physicists in the world.


*18/1/2007*


      New School of Science in Pakistan
      <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=215>

Officials at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) have 
announced that about 200 students will enrol in its new School of 
Science and Engineering (SSE), which will begin its first semester of 
under-graduate classes next year. The School will offer degrees in a 
wide variety of fields, including biology, chemistry, mathematics. 
physics, and electrical, mechanical, biochemical and industrial 
engineering. With a projected budget of $125 million, SSE is being 
modelled on the paradigm for higher education followed by such elite 
universities as MIT, Caltech and Stanford. The School will also create a 
$1-million endowed chair in honour of Abdus Salam, ICTP's founding 
director.


*30/1/2007*


      African Physical Review <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=216>

ICTP is sponsoring and hosting the /African Physical Review/ 
<http://www.aphysrev.org>, a free, on-line, peer-reviewed, international 
journal that will publish reviews, research articles, and brief 
communications in all branches of experimental and theoretical physics 
and related interdisciplinary fields. One of the objectives of the 
journal is to bridge the knowledge gap resulting from the inability of a 
large number of academic institutions in African countries to subscribe 
to leading physics periodicals.
Two major reasons motivated the Abdus Salam ICTP to organize and host 
this journal. First, low-cost, fast and easily accessible electronic 
publishing is rapidly replacing the traditional high-cost hard copy 
journal publishing. This trend is changing the entire field of 
peer-reviewed scientific publishing. Second, the economics of 
traditional mode of knowledge dissemination is not favorable to 
institutions in Africa. It is simply too expensive for these 
institutions to publish or purchase technical journals.
There is a critical mass of African scientists who produce good quality 
publications, but they publish their work abroad because so few quality 
journals in Africa meet international standards. There are some 
electronic journals but their quality suffers due to lack of experienced 
and highly qualified scientists managing their editorial functions.
The quality of the scientific material being published by APR will be 
overseen by an international advisory board of editors consisting of 
eminent scientists, including Sir Anthony Leggett, a Nobel laureate in 
physics (2003). ICTP will provide the editorial management and technical 
support team, whereas the editor, associate editors, and members of the 
international board of editors will operate from their home institutions 
worldwide.
For further information, contact K. Tahir Shah, Managing Editor, 
shah at ictp.it <mailto:shah at ictp.it>.


*31/1/2007*


      Colloquium by Ghirardi <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=217>

GianCarlo Ghirardi, Department of Theoretical Physics, University of 
Trieste, and long-time ICTP consultant, will deliver a Colloquium on 
"Symmetry in Art: Friezes and Periodic Tessellations" in the ICTP Main 
Lecture Hall, on Thursday, 1 February, at 18:00 hrs. The public is 
welcome to attend. Ghirardi will speak about the use of science in the 
creation of artistic patterns.
Ghirardi's artworks -- "The Periodic Tarots" -- will be on display in 
the lobby of the Main Building. His technique follows the same 
principles used by Arab artists for ornamental purposes and by Dutch 
graphic artist, M.C. Escher, for his engravings. The technique requires 
mastering, for artistic purposes, an extremely refined mathematical 
procedure based on group theory. The exhibit will remain on display 
until the end of this week.


*2/2/2007*


      Dry Land Sustainability <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=219>

Daniel Schaffer, Public Information Officer for ICTP and TWAS, is the 
co-author of the lead article in /Environment/ magazine, a monthly 
publication published by Heldref Publications in Washington, DC. His 
co-authors include Ehsan Masood, a a free-lance journalist who has 
written for /Nature/, /New Scientist/ and /The Economist/; Pallava 
Bagla, the southeast Asia correspondent for /Science/; and Yvonne Ndege, 
a journalist with the BBC in London. The article, "Three Stories of 
Adaptation to Life Without Water," consists of excerpts of a book edited 
by Schaffer and Masood, /Dry: Life Without Water/, published by Harvard 
University Press last year.


      G8-UNESCO World Forum <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=218>

The G8-UNESCO World Forum on 'Education, Research and Innovation: New 
Partnership for Sustainable Development' <http://g8forum.ictp.it/> will 
be held in Trieste on 10-12 May 2007. The meeting is being organized by 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNESCO in collaboration with ICTP. 
Trieste's other international scientific institutions, as well as the 
local authorities of Trieste and /Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia/, are 
also lending their support.
The Forum builds on the discussion launched at the St. Petersburg summit 
on the interconnections between the three components of the triangle of 
knowledge---education, scientific research and technological 
innovation---from the perspective of sustainable development, and seeks 
to identify risks and opportunities for industrialized countries as well 
as developing and low-income countries.
The discussion will be presented by speakers of the highest level from 
the educational, scientific and entrepreneurial worlds, drawn from G8 
countries as well as developing countries.


      Filippo Giorgi on Radio3 <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=220>

Filippo Giorgi, head of ICTP's Earth System Physics group, and one of 
the vice-chairs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 
<http://www.ipcc.ch/> Working Group I, speaks on Radio3 Scienza 
<http://www.radio.rai.it/radio3/view.cfm?Q_EV_ID=203625> about the 
release of the 21-page IPCC summary report for policymakers, released 
today at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The interview, which is in 
Italian, is conducted by Fabio Pagan, ICTP Public Information Office.


*6/2/2007*


      ICTP Associate Appointed Rector <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=221>

ICTP Senior Associate Mary Teuw Niane has been appointed Rector of 
/Université Gaston Berger/, Saint-Louis, Senegal. Niane's ties to the 
Centre date back to 1999, and he has been an Associate since 2000. He 
served as tutor at the ICTP School on Nonlinear Differential Equations 
in October 2006. His primary areas of research are partial differential 
equations and control theory. Before his recent appointment to Rector, 
he was director of the /Laboratoire d'analyses numériques et 
d'informatique/ (Lani).


*8/2/2007*


      Iengo Appointed to Nucleus Committee
      <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=222>

Roberto Iengo, director of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory at SISSA and 
long-time consultant in the ICTP High Energy Physics group and course 
director of ICTP activities in string theory since the late 1980s, has 
been appointed to the Nucleus Committee for the Assessment of the 
University of Trieste. He will be one of five members of an expert 
committee who will review the functioning of the University of Trieste 
and draft a report to propose improvements in fields such as scientific 
research, curricula, and administrative organization and management.


*12/2/2007*


      Generous Donation from KR Sreenivasan
      <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=223>

ICTP Director, K.R. Sreenivasan, has donated EUR100,000 to ICTP, on his 
own behalf and that of his wife and children. In his accompanying 
message, Sreenivasan added "I am not rich and my regret is that more is 
not possible." The money shall be spent in ways that are currently 
examined to see "if there are aspects of the Centre for which the money 
could be more useful than for others."


*16/2/2007*


      ICO/ICTP Award 2007 <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=224>

Svetlana V. Boriskina, School of Radiophysics, V. Kharazin Kharkov 
National University, in Kharkov, Ukraine, has won the 2007 ICO/ICTP 
Award 
<http://news.ictp.it/php/linkout/o.php?out=http://www.ictp.trieste.it/%7Esci_info/awards/ICO/ICO.html>. 
The cermony took place in the ICTP Main Lecture Hall during the Winter 
College on Fibre Optics, Fibre Lasers and Sensors 
<http://cdsagenda5.ictp.trieste.it/full_display.php?smr=0&ida=a06183>, 
12-23 February. Boriskina is being honoured for ther original work in 
the development of numerical modeling techniques for optoelectronic 
devices, micro-optical resonators, dielectric lenses and waveguides and 
for her active commitment aimed at the diffusion of research in optics 
in Ukraine.


      MHA Hassan Gives Plenary Lecture at AAAS
      <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=225>

Mohamed H.A. Hassan, executive director of TWAS --- the Academy of 
Sciences for the Developing World <http://www.twas.org> --- will give 
one of four plenary lectures at the AAAS Annual Meeting 
<http://www.aaas.org/meetings/Annual_Meeting/> being held in San 
Francisco from 15-19 February. His topic is 'international cooperation 
in science and technology for sustainable well-being.' Other plenary 
lectures include: Larry Page, co-founder of Google; Nobel Laureate 
Steven Chu (Physics 1997), professor of physics and applied physics of 
Stanford University; and Susan Solomon, co-chair of Working Group 1, 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and senior scientist 
at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The 
meeting is expected to draw more than 5000 people.


*19/2/2007*


      Sreenivasan Honoured <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=226>

On 8 February, the UNESCO Club in Florence awarded the Prize for 
international cooperation and culture of peace to ICTP Director K.R. 
Sreenivasan. The ceremony took place at /Palazzo Vecchio/ during an 
international conference on sustainable development in the field of 
cultural and environmental heritage.


*20/2/2007*


      Memorandum of Agreement with Poland
      <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=227>

During the School on Wireless Networking for Scientific Applications in 
Developing Countries 
<http://cdsagenda5.ictp.trieste.it/full_display.php?smr=0&ida=a06181> on 
15 February, ICTP Director K.R. Sreenivasan signed a memorandum of 
understanding with W. Halka, Development Director of the National 
Institute of Telecommunications of Poland. The institutions will 
collaborate for the advancement of human resources and research and 
development capabilities in the field of radiocommunication science and 
technology with particular emphasis on the development of information 
and communication technologies (ICT).


      Egyptian Government Fellowship <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=228>

Mohammad Youssof Ahmed Soliman, who is seeking a Master's degree in 
theroretical geophysics at the Faculty of Science, Suez Canal 
University, Ismailia, Egypt, has been awarded a six month fellowship, 
fully funded by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research 
of Egypt, to carry out research in the field of ionospheric physics at 
ICTP's Aeronomy and Radiopropagation Laboratory. Youssof will work under 
the guidance of Sandro M. Radicella.


*26/2/2007*


      ICTP on the Radio <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=229>

Tomorrow at 11:30 a.m., Claudio Tuniz (Applied Physics), Julian 
Chela-Flores (Applied Physics) and Claudio Piani (Physics of Weather and 
Climate) will participate in a programme on climate change on Radio1.


      James Eells <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=230>

James Eells, first head of the ICTP Mathematics group, died on 14 
February. He was 80 years old. An internationally known expert in 
differential geometry, Eells was professor emeritus at Warwick 
University (UK). He began his association with ICTP's mathematics 
activities in 1972, and he served as head of the Mathematics group from 
1986 to 1992.


*27/2/2007*


      Mori Fellowships in UNESCO Newsletter
      <http://news.ictp.it/index.php?p=231>

/A World of Science/e, the quarterly newsletter of UNESCO Natural 
Sciences Sector, has published an article, "Helping Africa's 'Best and 
Brightest' Lift Science at Home" which examines the ICTP-administered 
Mori Fellowships programme. The article, written by ICTP Public 
Information Officer Daniel Schaffer, is based on a feature story 
published in /News from ICTP/ 
<http://www.ictp.trieste.it/%7Esci_info/News_from_ICTP/News_115/features_Mori.html>. 




©2005-2006 ICTP || *news.ictp.it* <http://news.ictp.it>

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