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News from ICTP 113 - Monitor
UNESCO Director
General at ICTP
The director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koïchiro Matsuura,
visited ICTP on 17 May. Matsuura spoke in the Main Lecture Hall
and presented the 2004 ICTP Prize to Bernardo Gabriel Mindlin.
Other dignitaries who participated in the event included Asaf
Hajiyev, secretary, Department of Physical, Mathematical and Technical
Sciences, Azerbaijan Republic; C.N.R. Rao, president, Academy
of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS); Renato Angelo Ricci,
honorary president, Italian Physical Society; and Victorio Maria
José Taccetti, Argentina's ambassador in Rome. Following
the ceremony, Matsuura met with ICTP's director and the heads
of the Centre's scientific groups, as well as the president and
executive director of TWAS, to learn more about the organisations'
activities.
2004 ICTP Prize Lecture
ICTP Prize winner Bernardo Gabriel Mindlin presented
the 2004 ICTP Prize Lecture on 17 May. Mindlin, an internationally
recognised expert in bird physiology and vocalisation, spoke on
"The Physics and Neural Control of Birdsong." A professor
of physics at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina and
author of more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, Mindlin
has made major contributions to our understanding of nonlinear
dynamical systems in such diverse fields as solar activity, lasers,
neural modelling, speech recognition and birdsongs. Mindlin's
lecture examined the physical mechanisms at work in the melodious
creation of a birdsong and the neural instructions needed to drive
this tuneful process. The 2004 ICTP Prize was given in honour
of Arthur Taylor Winfree, a distinguished professor of theoretical
physics and Regents' professor at the University of Arizona, USA,
who died of brain cancer on 5 November 2002.
Badran Appointed Prime Minister
Adnan Badran, former deputy director general of UNESCO,
Paris, France, and former vice president of the Academy of Sciences
for the Developing World (TWAS), has been named prime minister
of Jordan. King Abdullah made the announcement on 5 April. Badran,
who has visited ICTP and TWAS on numerous occasions, held the
position of president of Philadelphia University, Amman, Jordan,
prior to his appointment. He has also served as minister of agriculture,
minister of education and secretary general of Jordan's Higher
Council for Science and Technology (HCST). News from ICTP
published an extensive interview with Badran in 1998, when he
was in Trieste to participate in the Abdus Salam Memorial Meeting.
See "The ICTP in
the Post-Salam Era," News from ICTP, Winter 1998,
p. 4-5.
ICTP Director at Nathiagali College
ICTP director K.R. Sreenivasan travelled to
Pakistan to help celebrate the 30th International Nathiagali Summer
College on Physics and Contemporary Needs, held from 27 June to
13 July. The event, which was launched by ICTP founding director
Abdus Salam, is designed to promote scientific dialogue and provide
opportunities for cooperation and joint research programmes. This
year's activities, highlighted by the presence of Pakistan's president
Pervez Musharraf at the opening ceremony, focussed on a broad
range of fields, including general relativity, cosmology, particle
physics, nanoscience, chemistry, biology and seismology.
UNU/IAS Director in Trieste
Abdul Hamid Zakri, director of the United Nations University's (UNU) Institute of Advanced Studies, headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, visited ICTP on 7 April to explore possible avenues of cooperation with ICTP. He was accompanied by Max Bond, executive officer, UNU Office of the Rector, and Caterina Casullo, head, UNU Office in Europe, Paris. It marked the first meeting between the two organisations. Zakri will soon sign a memorandum of understanding between ICTP and UNU designed to lead to joint activities and other cooperative ventures.
Chinese Delegation
A Chinese delegation, led by Cheng Jinpei, vice minister
of China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), met with
the director's special advisor, Claudio Tuniz, and other ICTP
staff on 24 May. The group discussed possible areas of cooperation
between China's scientific community and ICTP, especially in the
area of nanotechnology.
MOU with Azerbaijan
From left: K.R. Sreenivasan, Asaf Hajiyev and Seifallah Randjbar-Daemi
Asaf Hajiyev, secretary of the Department of Physical,
Mathematical and Technical Sciences of the Azerbaijan Republic,
signed an agreement with ICTP on 17 May 2005 intended to foster
greater cooperation between the Centre and Azerbaijan's scientific
community.
UK Ambassador
From left: K.R. Sreenivasan, John Dodds and Sir Ivor Roberts
The ambassador of the United Kingdom to Italy, Sir Ivor
Roberts, visited ICTP on 28 April to learn more about Trieste
and its scientific institutions. Accompanied by the honorary British
consul in Trieste, John Dodds, he met ICTP director K.R. Sreenivasan
who outlined ICTP's research and training activities.
Onime SCS Acting Head
Clement Onime (first from left) and Alvise Nobile (first from right) with
IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei, September 1999
Clement Onime has been appointed acting head of the
Scientific Computer Section, replacing Alvise Nobile who
has stepped down after more than 20 years as the leader of the
group. Onime, who was born in Ubiaja, Nigeria, obtained a master's
of science degree in electronic and electrical engineering from
Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria in 1998, where he also worked
as a network system administrator and lecturer until 2000. From
October 1998 to October 1999 he was a visiting scientist at ICTP.
He joined ICTP in February 2000 as systems and network analyst.
Opecca Retires
Eleonora Opecca, head of ICTP's Passport and Visa Information Office (see "Monitor", News from ICTP, Autumn 2003, p. 12), has retired. Born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Eleonora began her career at ICTP in 1985 with the Office of Associate Members, Federated Institutes and Italian Laboratories. A decade later, she was appointed head of the ICTP Visa Office, where she remained until her retirment. Before coming to ICTP, Opecca held positions with South African Airways in Johannesburg and the US Consulate in Trieste. ICTP wishes her well in her retirement.
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