Applications are now available for fellowships to earn a Laurea Magistralis in Fisica and Laurea Magistralis in Astrofisica e Fisica Spaziale, under a joint programme sponsored by ICTP and the University of Trieste. A limited number of fellowships are being offered to students from the developing world. For additional information and application forms, please see this page.

ICTP Dirac Medallists Sergio Ferrara, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Daniel Freedman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, State University of New York (SUNY), Stony Brook, have been awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics “For constructing supergravity, the first supersymmetric extension of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and for their central role in its subsequent development.” The Dannie Heineman Prize is awarded jointly by the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Institute of Physics (AIP). Eighteen ICTP Dirac Medallists have now received this prestigious award, including the three winners this year.

ICTP Director, K.R. Sreenivasan participated in the “March Meeting of the American Physical Society” in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where, on 13 March, he chaired and spoke at the session, “Scientists from Developing Countries: Is There an Effective Way to Support Meaningful Research?” ICTP Associate Zohra Ben Lakhdar also spoke at this session.
On the following day, Sreenivasan participated in the ACIPA (American Chapter of the Indian Physics Association) Meeting. Other participants were Shobo Bhattacharya, Director, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), India, and Michael Cheetham, Study Director of the Smithsonian Institution, USA.

Giacinto Scoles, Donner Professor of Science at Princeton University, and Professor at the Departments of Biophysics and Condensed Matter Physics at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, has been awarded the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics. He shares the Medal with J. Peter Toennies, Associate Professor, Department of Physics University of Göttingen, Germany, and Former Director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Göttingen, Germany.
The award is being given to Scoles and Toennies for their development of new techniques for studying molecules, by embedding them in extremely small and ultra-cold droplets of helium. Their work has led to a better understanding of the extraordinary properties of superfluid helium, including its ability to flow without friction.
Scoles has lectured at ICTP on numerous occasions since 1988 and has been course director of the Stig Lundqvist Conferences. The Medal is awarded by the Franklin Institute.

Shaukat Aziz, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, has given his approval to a plan to establish a research centre for earthquake risk assessment and management. The centre, which will cater to the needs of South Asia, Central Asia and Middle East, will be located at the National Center for Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. ICTP is among the international organizations that the new centre will work with. Other organizations include the International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Vladimir Keilis-Borok and Inessa Vorobieva, two well-known seismologists who have collaborated with ICTP’s Structure and Non-Linear Dynamics of the Earth (SAND) group for more than 20 years, were part of a select group who served as consultants during discussions that led to the creation of the new centre.

The National Centre for Physics (NCP) has organized the 12th Regional Conference in Mathematical Physics, in cooperation with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and ICTP. The Conference is taking place from 27 March to 1 April at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Regional conferences on mathematical physics have been held for the past 20 years on a rotating basis in Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. The fields covered in this year’s conference include superstring theory, particle physics, relativity, astrophysics, cosmology, plasma physics and the formal aspects of mathematical physics, including non-commutative geometry. About 40 foreigners and 20 Pakistanis will lecture at the event.

Mosibudi Mangena, Minister of Science and Technology in South Africa, met with ICTP Director K.R. Sreenivasan, on Friday, 24 March, to discuss future avenues of cooperation. The Minister also met with other representatives of Trieste’s international scientific community during his brief visit.

Mosibudi Mangena at ICTP with K.R. Sreenivasan

More than 200 scientists attended ICTP’s annual Spring School on Superstring Theories and Related Topics, held from 27 March to 4 April. The School was created some 20 years ago to explore the most recent advances in the field of string theory related to high energy physics and cosmology. Among this year’s lecturers were renowned scientists Ignatios Antoniadis (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), Hiroshi Ooguri (Caltech, Pasadena, USA), and Andrew Strominger (Harvard University, USA). Topics discussed included phenomenological aspects of string theory and black hole attractors.

On 6-7 April a delegation from Qatar visited ICTP and other local scientific institutions to discuss possible collaborations in the fields of biotechnology, telecommunications, space research, and environmental modelling. Abdullah Hussain Al-Kubaisi, Minister of Technological Sciences, and Savino Selvaggio, Director of the Qatar Science and Technology Park, met with ICTP Director K.R. Sreenivasan. AREA Science Park President Maria Cristina Pedicchio, who visited Qatar last March, organized the visit.
On 5 April, ICTP Director met also Yaqoub Ashhab, Palestine Polytechnic University.

Meeting with the delegation from Qatar

John D. Barrow, professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), University of Cambridge, has won the 2006 Templeton Prize. He is being honoured “for his writings about the relationship between life and the universe, and the nature of human understanding,” which “have created new perspectives on questions of ultimate concern to science and religion.” The Templeton Prize, which is designed to encourage and honor those who advance religion and spiritual matters, carries a US$1.4 million cash award.
Barrow has visited ICTP on several occasions, including the Summer Workshops in High Energy Physics and Cosmology in 1984 and 1987.

Romain Murenzi, who attended the ICTP Course on Basic Telecommunication Science in 1989, has been appointed to the newly created post of Minister of Science, Technology and Scientific Research in Rwanda. Murenzi, who previously served as Minister of Science, will shoulder additional responsibilities for accelerating the integration of science and technology into all sectors of the national economy. Last year, Rwanda published its first detailed science strategy, which outlined plans to apply the findings of scientific research to improve health, agriculture and the environment.

Lennart A.E. Carleson, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Los Angeles, UCLA, has been awarded the Abel Prize 2006, “for his profound and seminal contributions to harmonic analysis and the theory of smooth dynamical systems.” The Abel Prize, inaugurated in 2003 and designed to honour the world’s most accomplished mathematicians, carries a US$920,000 cash award. Carleson was a lecturer at the ICTP Workshop on Dynamical Systems in 1992.

ICTP Director, K.R. Sreenivasan, recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, where he visited with professors and officials from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and the King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST), and Kuwait, where he met with professors and officials from the University of Kuwait and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS). Discussions ranged from a general exchange of ideas on scientific priorities and reward systems to the concrete steps that ICTP and scientific institutions in both countries could take to forge stronger ties in the future.

Claudio Tuniz, ICTP Assistant Director, and Mauro Messerotti, Trieste Astronomical Observatory, will provide eyewitness accounts of the total eclipse of the sun that took place last month when they speak in ICTP’s Main Building, Lecture Room C, on 27 April at 15:30. Tuniz travelled to Kenya and Messerotti went to Turkey to witness the event, which occurred on 29 March. Their talks will be accompanied still images, movies and computer simulations of this rare occurrence. All are welcome to attend.

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Nobel Laureate for Physics 1991, will lecture tomorrow, Thursday, 27 April, in the Kastler Lecture Hall, Adriatico Guesthouse during the Workshop on Driven States in Soft and Biological Matter.. The title of his talk is “Some Thoughts on Friction.”

6 May marks the 30th anniversary of a violent earthquake that struck parts of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in northeastern Italy. The earthquake killed nearly 1000 people and caused hundreds of million of dollars in property damage. To commemorate the event, Regione Friuli-Venezia Giuliaa is organizing several events from 28 April to 6 May, including a scientific workshop examining a wide range of topics such as the region’s seismology, civil preparedness and reconstruction policies. Giuliano F. Panza, head of ICTP’s SAND (Structure and Non-Linear Dynamics of the Earth Group), will be among the speakers. He will lecture on seismic risk in the region.

ICTP/TWAS Public Information Officer Daniel Schaffer is the co-editor of Dry: Life Without Water, published by Harvard University Press. The book, which includes more than 80 illustrations, describes how people living in arid environments across the developing world, have learned to cope—indeed thrive—in water-sparse environments.