Ecological Economics

The Ecological and Environmental Economics programme, an activity that ICTP will host through 2004, held its official launch on 10 February. Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate in economics (1987), participated in the official launch in ICTP's Kastler Lecture Hall. The event was part of the First School on Ecological Economics that began on 27 January with a series of 'teaching workshops.' The initiative is promoted under an agreement with the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Sweden, and Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei, Italy. For additional information, please contact eee@ictp.trieste.it.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) executive council and commission chairpersons met at ICTP on 24-25 January to plan IUPAP's activities for the next three years. A key topic on the agenda was potential strategies for helping developing countries improve their education and research programmes. Special attention was paid to the role that ICTP and the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) could play in these efforts. Other topics discussed included professional ethics, the state of physics in Italy, and planning for the World Year of Physics, which will be celebrated in 2005.

Praveen Chaudhari, chairperson of the ICTP Scientific Council, has been appointed director of Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is part of a network of national laboratories operated by the US Department of Energy. Chaudhari was employed at IBM for more than 30 years as a scientist and senior manager of research, rising to the position of vice president for science. An expert in condensed matter physics, he has published more than 150 research articles and has received 22 patents. Chaudhari has served as chairperson of the ICTP Scientific Council since 1998.

Mariana Weissmann receiving the L'Oréal-UNESCO Prize from Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO

Former ICTP Senior Associate (1985-1994) Mariana Weissmann, senior researcher at Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who has visited ICTP on numerous occasions over the past two decades, has been awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science. The prize, given each year to five women scientists (one from each of the five continents), carries a cash award of US$100,000. This year's competition focussed on material science. Launched in 1999, L'Oréal-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science has become one of the world's most prestigious prizes for women scientists. For additional information, see www.forwomeninscience.com.

Christian Patermann, Director of Environment, Marine Ecosystems and Biodiversity at the European Commission (EC), visited Trieste's international scientific institutions on 19-20 February to discuss potential areas of participation under the European Union's (EU) 6th Framework Programme for scientific research and technological development. He spoke of EU's keen interest in working in partnership with scientific institutions in the developing world and expressed hope that the institutions that make up the Trieste System--most notably, ICTP, the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), and the International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS)--could serve as an important conduit between the North and South.

In addition to his position as director, Katepalli R. Sreenivasan has been named the Abdus Salam Honorary Professor of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. The professorship, named after ICTP's founding director, is designed to recognise Sreenivasan's outstanding qualifications as a high-level scientist in the fields of statistical and nonlinear mechanics, turbulence, and the physics of fluids, as well as his intention to continue his own active research programme while serving as director.

Erio Tosatti, ICTP's acting director from June 2002 to March 2003, will continue to serve the Centre as acting deputy director until June this year, when he will return full-time to the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA). Tosatti's presence will help ensure a smooth transition for ICTP's new director, K.R. Sreenivasan, who began his tenure in March.

The InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP) and the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), whose secretariats are located on ICTP's campus, hosted a workshop on capacity building for science academies in countries with predominantly Muslim communities on 5-7 March. The workshop concluded with a one-day symposium examining science, religion and values. The list of attendees included Atta-ur-Rahman, chair, Higher Education Commission, Pakistan; Bruce Alberts, president, US National Academy of Sciences; and Abdulaziz O. Altwaijri, director general, Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO). For additional information, contact iap@twas.org.

Argentinean-born Eduardo Alberto Jagla is the newest member of the ICTP condensed matter physics group. He joined the group earlier this year. Jagla received his Ph.D. from the University of Bariloche concentrating his studies on vortex dynamics in superconductors (the subject of his thesis) and strongly correlated systems. Since then, his research has focussed on the theoretical underpinnings of phase transitions. His studies in this field have contributed to our understanding of anomalous behaviour in such substances as water and silica. A frequent visitor to ICTP over the past decade, Jagla most recently served as researcher of Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONYCET) at Instituto Balseiro, Bariloche, Argentina.

Condensed matter experimentalist Sabyasachi (Shobo) Bhattacharya, who attended a number of ICTP training activities during the 1990s, has been appointed director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India. TIFR, with 400 scientific staff, is one of India's premier research institutions.

Farhan Saif, assistant professor at the Department of Electronics of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, has been awarded the Salam Prize in the field of physics. Farhan Saif has participated in several ICTP conferences and schools in condensed matter physics since 1997. The Salam Prize is given on a rotating basis in the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology. Begun in 1981, it is awarded to Pakistani scientists, younger than 35 years of age, who live and work in their native country. Founder and long-time ICTP director Abdus Salam, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1979, used a portion of his prize money to launch the award. Comparable Salam prizes are given to scientists in Egypt, Morocco, Palestine and Syria.

Back to Contents Forward to Monitor

Home