VIPs Visits

Ishfaq Ahmad, Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, visited ICTP from 12-14 September. The Chairman and ICTP staff discussed ways to strengthen the relationship between Pakistan and the Centre by expanding the number of visits of Pakistani scientists to ICTP research activities and by increasing the number of Pakistani scientists participating in ICTP external training programmes. ICTP and Pakistan enjoy a long and fruitful relationship dating back to the Centre's earliest days.

Science officials from China and Viet Nam visited ICTP in October. The Chinese delegation from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) was headed by Bai Ge, the deputy director-general of the NSFC bureau of international cooperation, and included the deputy director of the department of mathematics and physical sciences and the programme manager of the bureau of international cooperation.

The Viet Nam delegation was headed by Tran Manh Tuan, deputy director-general of the Viet Nam National Centre for Natural Science and Technology (NCST), and included the director of the institute of materials science and the director of the department of international cooperation. More than 150 Chinese scientists visit ICTP each year, some under a cooperative agreement with the Centre in which China pays the airfare while ICTP covers the cost of hospitality. Meanwhile, Viet Nam sends some 60 scientists to the Centre each year, placing it near the top of country-participation on a per-capita basis.

Cuban nuclear physicist Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, eldest son of Fidel Castro, toured ICTP and the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) on 2-3 November. Fidel 'junior' studied at the Lomonosov University in Moscow and received his Ph.D. in fusion physics at the Kurchatov Institute. From 1979 to 1992, Castro served as head of Cuba's Atomic Energy Commission. Today he is engaged in programmes to modernise the scientific, technological and industrial management of Cuba. This was Castro's second visit to the Centre. The first took place in 1989.

Prosper Mpawenayo, Minister of National Education and Scientific Research in Burundi in Central Africa, visited ICTP in mid November to discuss potential areas of cooperation with ICTP for boosting training and research opportunities among scientists in his home country. Mpawenayo was a Regular ICTP Associate between 1993 and 1999 and was a Fellow in the ICTP Programme for Training and Research in Italian Laboratories (TRIL) between 1985 and 1988. During the latter period, he earned a doctorate in physics. TRIL grants enabled Mpawenayo to visit the Politecnico di Torino on several occasions during the 1990s. His major fields of research are semiconductor physics and solar energy.

A delegation from European embassies in Rome, including scientific counsellors and attachés from Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, visited the Centre on 28 November, to learn more about ICTP's training and research activities.

TRIBUTES

Antonio Ruberti, 1927-2000
Antonio Ruberti, a well-known scientist, engineer and statesman, died in Rome on 4 September. As Italian Minister for Scientific Research from 1987 to 1992, and European Commissioner from 1992 to 1994, he strongly supported ICTP, SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies), and the Elettra synchrotron facility. He also led the effort to establish the Italian and European Scientific Culture Weeks, now held yearly, and lent his authority to the development of the Trieste-based Laboratorio dell'Immaginario Scientifico. He visited ICTP in October 1987.

Jean Heidmann, 1923-2000
French-born astronomer Jean Heidmann, an enthusiastic supporter of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), died on 3 July. He began his career at Cornell University, USA, conducting research on cosmic rays. He then moved to the Paris Observatory, Meudon, France, to pursue his interests in radioastronomy. In recent years he advocated the design and ultimate construction of a lunar SETI radiotelescope fully shielded from terrestrial interference. Author of many popular books on astronomy and cosmology, Heidmann lectured at the ICTP Conference on Chemical Evolution in 1992, 1995 and 1997.

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