Brian Stewart, staff member of the US Department of Energy, has joined ICTP for a two-year appointment. During his tenure, he hopes to help strengthen ties between the Centre and the US physics community.

Greetings

Brian Stewart

At a reception held during the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in September 1999, ICTP director Miguel Virasoro and the US Department of Energy's (USDOE) undersecretary, Ernest Moriz, spoke generally about the mutual benefits that could be derived by having the USDOE provide the Centre with a cost-free expert.
Virasoro had noted that many distinguished American physicists have lectured at the Centre since its beginning and that a number of America's most noteworthy physicists, including J.R. Oppenheimer, P.W. Anderson and J.R. Schrieffer, had served on ICTP's Scientific Council. Nevertheless, establishing closer ties with the Centre's research and training activities, a long-standing goal of ICTP's founding director Abdus Salam, had remained elusive. For his part, Moriz acknowledged that closer ties between the physics community in the United States and ICTP in Trieste would likely prove beneficial both to US scientists and US scientific institutions.
My arrival in Trieste last fall marks a successful conclusion both to the casual conversation that took place in 1999 and the series of discussions that ensued.
I think of myself as a scientist. In fact, I hold a doctorate in plasma physics from Rice University in Houston, Texas. Yet I come to ICTP with the unusual title of cost-free expert. Cost-free, you say? Never heard of it. Expert? We'll have to wait and see. That's the reaction that I often receive from my new colleagues here in Trieste when I introduce myself.
This response calls for a bit of an explanation. The United States and other countries routinely provide cost-free experts to the IAEA and other UN-affiliated organisations. For example, a colleague of mine currently serves as a cost-free expert in IAEA's Department of Nuclear Safety. Another colleague works in the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. However, until now, ICTP has never participated in this programme.
It is called cost-free because I am essentially on loan to ICTP--working on projects under the direction of the director--at no cost to the Centre. My arrival here--in UN terminology, I have been 'seconded' to the Centre from the USDOE--reflects a new level of commitment and support from the United States, and especially from the USDOE, both for the principles and goals of ICTP and the training and research programmes that the Centre has put in place to fulfill its mandate. The USDOE's responsibilities cover a wide range of scientific endeavors, including programmes and initiatives for enhancing collaboration with developing-country scientists.
Upon my arrival, I was assigned to the Office of External Activities (OEA) and asked to work with Faheem Hussain and Gallieno Denardo. My current activities include assistance to the IAEA-ICTP 'sandwich' fellowship programme and updating the experts list for evaluating conference referees. Denardo and I recently traveled to Vienna to discuss joint ICTP/IAEA programmes, most notably the sandwich fellowship programme.
Obviously, I am just beginning to learn about ICTP, the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and other scientific institutions that together make up the Trieste System. Over time, I hope to help develop broad-based strategies for further enhancing collaboration between developed- and developing-country scientists, using my affiliation with the USDOE to advance this goal. That, after all, is my primary reason for being here.
In my brief time on the job, I have been impressed by the efficiency and high purpose that seems to drive the Centre's work and those who work here. I look forward to learning more about this unique institution in the months ahead.
I view my appointment both as a personal challenge and a broad institutional opportunity that could ultimately enhance the ties between scientists in the United States and those working in the developing world. I can think of no better place to try to forge this relationship than right here at ICTP in Trieste.

Brian Stewart
US Department of Energy

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