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News from ICTP 105 - Dateline
In the News
Science carried a feature article on ICTP in
its 11 April edition examining the key role that ICTP has played
as a bridge between scientific communities--both North and South,
East and West. The article also looked at the current and future
challenges that the Centre faces. Meanwhile, Nature and
Physics World published articles on the Workshop on Capacity
Building for Academies in Countries with Predominantly Muslim
Communities and Symposium on Science, Religion and Values, which
took place on the ICTP campus on 5-7 March. The events were cosponsored
by the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP), the Third
World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the US National Academy of Sciences,
the Organization of the Islamic Conference's Standing Committee
on Scientific and Technical Cooperation (COMSTECH) and the Islamic
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO). For
copies of the articles, please contact sci_info@ictp.trieste.it.
Nobel Chemist
John B. Fenn, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry
in 2002, lectured at ICTP on 27 June at a Joint ICTP-Democritos
Colloquium. His talk, "Electrospray Wings for Molecular Elephants,"
examined the scientific foundation and subsequent development
of electrospray mass spectrometry (EMS), for which he won the
Nobel Prize. The technique, which allows for the attainment of
virtually fragmentation-free mass spectra of proteins and other
macromolecules, has revolutionised many areas of chemistry and
biochemistry. Born in 1917, Fenn is professor emeritus at Virginia
Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
SLAC Partner
ICTP's electronic Journals Delivery Service (eJDS) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center's (SLAC) PingER project. The primary purpose of the MOU is to utilise the eJDS network for monitoring real-time connectivity patterns among research and educational institutions in developing countries. The joint project is a direct response to the recommendation made at the Round Table on Developing Country Access to On-Line Scientific Publishing: Sustainable Alternatives, held at ICTP in October 2002. For additional information about the PingER project, see www-iepm.slac.stanford.edu/pinger. For additional information about eJDS, see www.ejds.org.
New Staff Member
Ramadas Ramakrishnan has joined ICTP's Mathematics group.
He assumed his position in May. Before arriving in Trieste, he
was a professor at the Department of Mathematics, Universite
de Montpellier II, France and, for 25 years, a researcher
at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India.
Ramakrishnan has also served as a researcher at the Institute
for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ, USA, and a visiting professor
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. His major research
areas focus on the interface between geometry and physics. In
1988, he was awarded the Bhatnagar Prize of the Indian Council
of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India's highest
science award.
Prizes and Fellowships
Jean-Pierre Serre, honorary professor of algebra and geometry at the College de France in Paris, has won the first Abel Prize. The prize, sponsored by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, is given to individuals for outstanding lifetime achievements in mathematics. Serre was honoured "for playing a key role in shaping the modern form of many parts of mathematics, including topology, algebraic geometry and number theory." Jacob Palis, professor of mathematics at the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who has been on the ICTP Scientific Council since 1995, served on the five-member selection committee. The prize, which carries a cash award of euro750,000, is named in honour of the distinguished 19th century Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. The prize ceremony took place at the University of Oslo in June.
The American Physical Society (APS) 2003 Prizes winners include
two scientists who have had close association with ICTP.
Frank Wilczek, recipient of the J.E. Lilienfeld Prize,
was awarded the Dirac Medal of the ICTP in 1994.
Boris Altshuler, recipient of the O.E. Buckley Prize, is
director of ICTP's training activities on mesoscopic physics.
APS also recently announced the selection of 192 new fellows.
Forty-one of the new fellows-more than 20 percent of the total-have
an affiliation with ICTP, including
Masatoshi Koshiba, Nobel Laureate in physics 2002, who last
visited ICTP in 1998, and
Alexei M. Tsvelik, director of ICTP's workshops in strongly
correlated electron systems.
Elections and Appointments
Several scientists closely associated with ICTP have been elected members or foreign associates of the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
Praveen Chaudhari, former chairperson of the ICTP Scientific Council and newly appointed director of Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA, was one of 72 distinguished scientists elected a member of NAS.
Helen Quinn, a theoretical physicist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and winner of the Dirac Medal of the ICTP in 2000, was also elected.
Edouard Brezin, a member of the ICTP Scientific Council and professor, Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France, and
Giorgio Parisi, ICTP Dirac Medallist in 1993 and professor, Department of Physics, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy, were two of 18 distinguished scientists holding citizenship outside the United States who were elected foreign associates. NAS's total membership now stands at 1922; the number of foreign associates in the Academy now totals 341.
S. George H. Philander, professor of meteorology, Department
of Geosciences, Princeton University, USA, and a member of the
ICTP Scientific Council since 1996, is among the 187 new fellows
elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), headquartered
in Washington, DC.
Giuliano Francesco Panza, head of ICTP's Structure and
Non-Linear Dynamics of the Earth (SAND) group and professor of
seismology at the University of Trieste, has been elected a foreign
member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Three years ago, the
European Geophysical Union honoured Panza with the prestigious
Beno Gutenberg Medal for his research on earthquake prediction.
NEWS FROM ASSOCIATES
ICTP's senior associate Panamalai Ramarao Parthasarathy,
professor, Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology,
Chennai, has been elected a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (IMS), based in Beachwood, Ohio, USA.
ICTP's regular associate Surender Dhankhar Singh, Department
of Agricultural Meteorology, Haryana Agricultural University,
India, has been awarded two national gold medals by India's president,
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Singh was honoured for his research on regional
monsoon dynamics and its relation to El Niño/La Niña
phenomenon.
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