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International Atomic Energy Agency

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

International Centre for Theoretical Phvsics

No. 42143January/February 1991

Sixty-fifth BirthdayCeremony

On 29th January, 1926, the worldwas gifted with a sensible man, a wisemafi, a scientist, a passionate advocatefor the scientific research in the ThirdWorld, a Nobel Laureate and a practicingmuslim who believes in the unity ofnature and the unity of science — he isProfessor Abdus Salam, the founderDirector of the International Centre forTheoretical Physics (ICTP). To payrespect to this great man and to observethe auspicious occasion of his 65thbirthday, ICTP chalked out a programmewith enthusiasm and admiration. Manydistinguished scientists, ambassadors andParliament Members of the Trieste Citymade the occasion gorgeous anddecorative.

Prof. H.R. Dalafi, Liaison Officer ofthe ICTP and organizer of thisceremony, delivered the welcomeaddress. He informed that the Prime

Minister Andreotti and ProfessorAntonino Zichichi would have attendedthis Ceremony in honour of ProfessorAbdus Salam, but Prof. Zichichiinformed him that the Prime Ministermight be caught up with engagementsconsequent to the Gulf crisis. He saidhe was happy to see all the guests,specially Sign or Prefetto, therepresentative of the Lord Mayor, thePresident of the Region, and all therepresentatives of the scientific,political, cultural and economic sectors.Prof. Dalafi further said that he washappy to have a physicist as ourchairman and an economist as co-chairrnan. Prof. Dalafi also said, "1wish to add also that until a few daysago, Prof. Salam did not know anythingabout this ceremony. It has been asurprise for him because I knew that, ifIhad told him, he would have cancelled it.We invited those who have worked inclose collaboration with Prof. Salamover the last twenQ-five years to say a

Contents

Sixty-Fifth BirthdayCeremony

Silver Dirac Medal

Degree Honoris Causato Abdus Salam

The Brain

G.D. Birla Awardfor Sir Hermann Bondi

1

6

6

6

8

Ms. Zingarelli, Head Librarian and eldest Staff Member of ICTP, presents the plaqueon behalf of the ICTP Staff.

Organizing one's OwnConference Can Filla Scientific Void 8

School of Mathematicsand Allied Sciences 11

International Colloquiumon Physics t2

Activities at ICTPin January/February L99L t 2

Calendar of Activitiesat ICTP in 1991 16

few words". He wished to have theopportunity to celebrate more and morethat kind of occasion for Prof. Salam.

Prof. Paolo Budinich, former DeputyDirector of ICTP, in his talk recalled hismemories of friendship with Prof.Salam and he reminded the story thecoming of the ICTP in Trieste. He said,"The coming of the ICTP in Trieste andthe consequent beginning of myfriendship with Abdus Salam was theresult of the combination of a series ofimprobable circumstances like the factthat in 1961 he was in Geneva and thenin the range of distance from Trieste

News from ICTP - No. 42143 - January/February 1991

(like Bologna, Vienna, Zagreb) fromwhere we could afford to invite people toour summer symposia. In the same yearhe convinced the Pakistani delegation atthe IAEA Generql Conference to proposethe creation of an International Centrefor Physics under the flag of the UnitedNations."

Prof. Budinich evaluated friendship,he said that good friendship, speciallybetween people comingn from differentparts of the world and from differentenvironments were always fruitful, theymay only improve people. On his parthe understood Muslims and their deepcultural values, maybe he adopted someMuslim habits, and he was convincedthat Prof. Salam had appreciated theirvalues. He continued, "The deep linkbetween us originated mainly from theenterprise we started here in Trieste,which during its rapid expansion, moreand more convinced us of its usefulnessand of its necessity for the benefit of theWorld in the South but also with ourneighbouring friends in the East withwhich we have kept and developedduring 26 years valuable links ofscientific, cultural and personalcollaborations. Here in Trieste we haveexperienced how the values of scienceand culture can only unite people, helpthem to understand each other, tocooperate and to live and progress inpeace."

Prof. Budinich concluded his speechby saying that the aims and ideals whichhad oriented the ICTP enterprise mightbecome of great value as a remedy to thedisaster, damages and bad feelings whichthe Gulf war would present and certainlyleave behind, and in the future thecontinuation of the ICTP and itsexpansion to ICS and ICGEB to copewith the ever increasing needs anddemands from the South and from theEast will be an absolute necessity.

After the speech of Prof. Budinich,Prof. Salvini requested Prof. L.Bertocchi, Deputy Director of the ICTPto deliver his speech. He said howinteraction with Salam took place whenhe had just arrived at the ICTP fromCERN tn 1967-68. He was asked todeliver a course at the PostgraduateSchool of the Trieste University, whoselectures were held here at the Centre. Tohis astonishment, when he started hislectures, he found, sitting among thestudents, Prof. Salam. He further statedthat Prof. Salam was the best and theworst of those students, always askingquestions, never allowing him to talkfor more than 10 minutes without

interrupting the discussion, wanting tomaster all details. Prof. Salam forcedhim to change the timetable of thecourse, in order to be able to attend allthe lectures. This is an aspect of thepersonality of Salam, always curious,always eager to learn and re-interprettheories and facts in his own way —this is Prof. L. Bertocchi's firstinteraction with Prof. Salam.

Finally Prof. Bertocchi wanted to sayhis experience with Prof. Salam as ascience administrator. "I have beenfortunate to start my cooperation withthe Centre 24 years ago, when I movedto Trieste, and I have been "captured"more and more by Salam, starting firstwith the organization of seminars, thenof courses, to end with theresponsibility of the Centre as DeputyDirector.

"I will end my talk underliningamong his qualities, the one which hasalways impressed me mostly: thecapacity of switching immediately andfully from one subject to another; hecould discuss a deep problem in physicswith the scientists of his group, then, ifinterrupted, switch to an administrativeproblem and discuss this new matterwith full attention, to return fully tophysics in the time of a few seconds. Iknow very few people who have thisquality at such a level. Lastly with onesentence, Abdus working with you ishard and dfficult, but always exciting. "

Dr. A.M. Hamende, formerScientific Information Officer and nowConsultant at the Third World Academyof Sciences, recalled his memory from1962 with Prof. Salam. Dr. Hamende isthe first person who met Prof. Salamfrom IAEA in his physics seminar.After the successful operation of theSeminar, Prof. Salam told him,"Hamenlde will you come to Trieste".This was the beginning of his life as anAdministrator and Scientific InformationOfficer in Trieste. More than 26 yearshave passed since Dr. Hamende startedworking with Prof. Salam. He said thatin front of him is the result of Prof.Salam's faith, competence andindomitable tenacity, this is the work ofa generation under his guidance andinspiration, an heritage which must bepreserved and further expanded. "Prof.Salam, we ioin the tens of thousands ofscientists who have been here and wishyou q very happy birthday this 29January and good health for the years tocome at the head of a magnificentinstitution that you have so masterlycreated"

Prof. A. Tavkhelidze, President ofthe Academy of Sciences of GeorgianSSR, said on behalf of the physicists ofthe Soviet Union and Georgia, "Let mecongratulate you on your birthday. Youare a Nobel Prize winner in the universaltheory of electromagnetic and weakinteractions. I think thqt not only I butmany of your friends are convinced thatyou must have a second Nobel Prize as ahumanist who has created a high spiritinstitute of theoretical physics."

Prof. L. Fonda, Prof. M.H.A.Hassan, Prof. Yu Lu, Prof. Papic,'spoke during this ceremony. Finally,Prof. Abdus Salam gave his thoughtfulspeech for the audience and he said:

"I shall start with the story of thepatriarch Abraham who is equallyrevered by Jews, Christians andMuslims. According to the Holy Bookof lslam — the Holy Quran —Abraham, together with his son, issupposed to have founded the Kabbah,the mosque in Mecca. While he waslifting big stones to build the strLtcture,he prayed and said:

Oh Lord, I have settled Jiom among myissue in a valley which is (all but)uncultivated but which enioins Thinehouse which I am erecting for you sothat they can stand and pray in front ofThee.Oh Lord, make the hearts oJ menincline towards them and grant themthe fruits of this earth so that they aregrateful to you."Thus, this prayer to incline men's

hearts towards the people who resided inMecca was made by Abraham himself.

"I do not claim to live in Mecca, butI am part of the same. tradition qndcertainly the prayer of Abraham has beenheard so that so many different peoplefrom dffirent walks of life have cometogether with their hearts inclinedtowards me. I feel very grateful to themall who have said such kind things aboutmy role towards the founding of thisCentre and the Third World Academy ofSciences.

"I shall mention a few names toillustrate some of the points which havebeen made.

"Professor Budinich said somethingof the Christian tradition must haverubbed off on me which is very true. Ihave been saying to my Muslim friendsand I will say it again that we mustshare the generosity of the Christiantrqdition if we are to be living on thesame planet as they are. I shall repeatthis message again. Fundamental faithis good because it leads you to the

News from ICTP - No. 12 113 - January/February 1991

Professor Abdus Salam speaks to the audience.

original faith which is set out in theBook. Together with fundamental faith,we must strive to be neither irrationalnor intolerant.

"I am grateful to the Presidents ofthe Royal Society and the NationalAcademy of Sciences and the ChineseAcademy and the Soviet Academy aswell as the Accademia dei Lincei, .fortheir kind and heartwarming wordswhich they have sent to me. Theyspeak of the resolve on their parts tohelp the Third World and those from theThird World who are listening to meshould remember what goodness means—goodness of the people of Trieste, forexample, in giving up their privateprivileges and in helping us from theThird World.

"Someone spoke of the dfficulties ofsetting up the Centre. The difficultywas not of the actual physical process ofsetting up the Centre. The dfficulty layin getting the ideas accepted in the firstplace. There was opposition fromalmost all the large industrialisedcountries, except ltaly, Japan and the{ordic countries. After the first stepwas taken, the actual building of theCentre did not present dfficulties. TheCity o.f Trieste took the matter in theirown hands. This sustains the messageswhich were read out today by ProfessorBudinich, Professor Bertocchi andProfessor Fonda as well as by Dr.Hamende, the administrator of theCentre till recently. These men took thecreation of the facilities to heart and theyprovided us with the basis of the most

beautiful location in the world for ascientific centre.

"I see the Prince of Torre and Tassoand I must pay a tribute to his greatfather who was the first person to writeto me regarding Trieste and itspossibilities. I remember receiving along letter which ended with hissignature. The signature extended overthe whole page. I was very struck bythat. I believe I still have that letterpreserved in the archives of the Centre.I am also very grateful to the doctors inTrieste who hsve made it a profession tolook after my health. I see Dr. Zambelliand Dr. Rocco who have looked after mybroken qrm, as well es Dr. Curri whohas done so much to keep me in goodform.

"Coming to ltaly has helped usmaterially. President G. Andreotti,whom I consider as one of my personalfriends, came here one day and duringthat one day, he listened to us qnd hemade up his mind that he was going tohelp the Third World Academy ofSciences to come into its own. Hemade an announcement in this very hall.Right away, so that's real generosity,that's real helpfulness. And I must saythe Government of ltaly and the ltalianpeople are to be commended for thisbecause after all it's funds from their sidewhich are coming to us for those fromthe Third World and we should be veryvery happy with this arrangement.

"There are several messages fromHeads of State, from the the President ofAlgeria, the Prime Minister of ltaly, the

President of the lvory Coast, CrownPrince Hassan of Jordan, the President ofNigeria, the President of Sri Lanka, thePresident of Sudan, President Nyerere,ex-President bf Tanzania and finally, mypersonal friend, President Perez, thePresident of Venezuela. Some of themhave been here and seen the way we havebeen working. They liked it qnd weliked them.

"Before I conclude, I must pay atribute to the Directors General of theIAEA, Dr. Sigvard Eklund and now Dr.Hans Blix, Mr. A. M'Bow and now Dr.F. Mayor of UNESCO as well as Dr.Kouzminov and my personal friends. Dr.A. Kaddourq and Dr. A. Badran.

"I must thank Professor Dalafibecause Dalafi was the man who firsttried to organize a celebration for my60th birthday. That effort was quenchedby myself at the last minute by tellingProfessor Marshak, Professor Witten andProfessor 't Hooft who had comespecially all the way from their homecountries to speak and to honour me. Ibegged them to desist from that and theywere persuaded. I could not persuadeProfessor Dalafi to stop his efforts thistime because he told me that wasexpecting President Andreotti - theNumero Uno of ltaly. (Jnfortunately,President Andreotti could not comebecause of the Gulf War. However,President Andreotti, in spite of all thedfficulties, has assured us that his spiritis with us and that we shall be able toget ICS successfully off the ground. Hehas promised to come and inaugurate

Nervs from ICTP - No. 42143 - Januarr'/Februarr, 1991

ICS. rcS, the International Centre forScience, is the internationaltechnological arm of the Centre here.Its three parts are the InternationalCentre for High Technology and l{ewMaterials, the International Centre forChemistry, Pure and Applied, as well esthe International Centre fo,Environment. This last will be in twopqrts •—one here and one in Venice.The Venice part will deal with MarineSciences. Professor Forti is in charge ofthe ICS.

"I do not think I have left offanybody else. Ms. Zingarellirepresented the staff. I must pay atribute to the staff of the Centre, thestaJf of the ICS as well as to the staff ofthe Third World Academy of Sciences aswell as to the scientific staff of theCentres. They are the people whom weshould remember always and who havereally done the work for which you havegiven me credit.

"Professor Papic,' has to be thankedfor his kind contribution and hisanalysis of what makes Salam tick. I donot agree with all the things which hesaid, particularly when he spoke of thegenius and the hqrd work. The hardwork is certainly there but the geniusmay not be.

"Anyway, I would like to say thefollowing — to those of us who arefrom the Third World. I have learntthrough my life that sharing all theblessings which we have beenvouchsafed — sharing and giving —these are the two things which havealways sustained me. The Prophet of

Islam said, "The hand which is above isbetter than the hand which is below".This means that giving is better thantaking. So, always be generous andsltare your blessings. That is oneimportant lesson from all that one hasbeen able to achieve.

"It is a shock when one hears thatone is 65, I wish there were some wayin which one could turn the clock back10 years at leqst and call oneself 55.

"Mn Chairman, how old are you?Prof. Salvini: I am older, yes. By sixyears.Prof. Salam: Six years, good heavens! Iwould not have thought you to be morethan 61.

"I shall finish with the story ofDirac's when we asked him if he wouldlike his 70th birthday to be celebrated inthe Centre. He came to me and he wasvery angry with me, because I dared tosttggest this. He sqid to me, "Do youreally believe that I have finished offwith physics2tt — that's what hethought, that his 70th birthdaycelebrations meant that he was finisheddoing physics. I assured him that I{osir, your physics was as fresh as ever —which was true. He was then reconciledto it, and he allowed us to go on withhis 70th birthday.

"So I have allowed Professor Dalafito go on with my 65th birthday, in thehope that you don't think that I amfinished with physics. I feel particularlyproud of my last paper on the Role ofChirality in the Origin of Ltfe.

"Thankyou very much, sir."In the middle of the function the

musicians Cameristi Triestini playedlyric music and expressed the gratitudeon behalf of the Trieste citizens. Fromthe ICTP, Ms. M. Zingarelli, Head ofthe Library and eldest Staff Member,presented a gift on behalf of the Staffand wished a happy birthday. Ms. E.Viti, Member of the ICTP Staff, readout the messages from various heads ofstates.

Lastly, the Chairman of the functionProf. Salvini, President of Accademiadei Lincei, Rome, Italy, gave hispresidential address. He said,

"The man we are honouring today isthe key person of a part of history ofphysics of this century. Together withtwo others, he opened the way to theunderstanding of the electromagnetic andelectroweak interactions. This was afantastic thing. It took many years.The idea of trying to have evidence ofthese particles through experiments ofthe particles divined by Abdus Salamand the others was very, very touchingand looked very impossible indeed.

"At the end, the research developedand it was decided that it was possible tofind these heavy particles. They werefottnd in 1981-82-83. The mqn authorof this gigantic experience was CarloRubbia and I can tell yott that, as soonas they were discovered, there was a fluxof people coming here to Trieste toAbdus Salam. We remember CarloRubbia coming, Zichichi coming... Iwos very busy in lhat moment just onthese particles. It was a recognition thatthese key points of the history of theworld in all the world had started fTom

The President of the function, Prof. G. Salvini, gives his presidential address.

News from ICTP - No. 42143 - January/February

Abdus Salam. It was a long chain ofscientists. No man can do this alone.There were hundreds of experimentalistsand theoreticians, but certainly AbdusSalam deserves a highly significant partof these discoveries.

"This js the part for which I amparticularly related to you independentlyof other aspects of this beautifulcelebrqtion."

In the second part of the Ceremonythere was a lunch hosted on the occasionof Prof. Salam's 65th birthday. Ahappy birthday at ICTP in honour ofProf. Salam.

M. Farooque•

Prof. Salam received mgssages from,among others:S.E. M. Mouloud Hamrouche,Head of Government of Algeria:

"On the occasion of the celebrationof your 65th birrhday. it gives me agreat pleasure to extend to you mysincere congratulations and my bestwishes for a very long and productivelif".

Your contribution to theadvqncement of science and your pioneerwork in particle physics, culminating inthe Nobel Price A ward, has made of youa symbol for all scientists of the ThirdWorld. Your efforts during the pastthree decades to establish permanentinstitutions to help scientists fromdeveloping countries to master mostadvanced sciences and technologies havebeen so successful in many respects.

Your views on development and theinternational nature of science deservegreat respect. Your insistence that therecqn be no permanent dominance inscience by a single nstion and thatscientific thought and its creqtion is thecommon and shared heritage of mankind,has indeed made you a source oJinspiration for all scientists from theNorth as well as from the South.

Algeria, its Government and itspeople will all be happy to welcomeyou at any time of your convenience, inorder to be inspired by your thoughtsand advices. May Allah keep you welland in good spirit for a very long timefor the benefit of humaniQ."On. Giulio Andreotti, PrimeMinister of Italy:

"I am sorry not to be able to attendthe meeting organized by the Centre,also to celebrate your birthday. As youcan well imagine, current events andprevious engagements really make itimpossible for me to come to Trieste,though I would have been really happy

to do so.In assuring you that I shall be there

with my thought and all my friendship,I send to you my very best (tnd mostheartfelt wishes for a happy birthday."M. Alassane Dramane Outtara,Prime Minister of Ivory Coast:

"At the time when the internationalscientific community expresses to youits sympathy and recognition on theoccasion of your birthday, kindly acceptthe gratitude and the affectionatethoughts of the Government of thePeople of the lvory Coast.

commend such contributions, but I cansay that such contributions have notonly been countless, but that as agenerous scientist, you have neverwaivered to share your knowledge withother, for the welfure of all.

Wishing you all the best for your65 th birthday and many happyprosperous years to come. "H.E. General Ibrahim B.Babangida, President andCommander-in-Chief of theArmed Forces of Nigeria:

"This is to congratulate you for the

Dr. N. Tomizza gives his present on behalf of the Trieste Ci4t.

I take this occasion to underline theexcellence of the links of scientificcooperation which you have created andreinforced over the years between theInternational Centre for TheoreticalPhysics and the young School ofMathematics and Physics of ourcountry.

In my own personql name and in thename of the scientists of the IvoryCoast, these signs of recognitionaccompany our heartftlt congratulations.

Wishing you a happy birthday andhealth and happiness for the year 1991for yourself and your family, we ask youto accept our expressions of friendship. "H.R.H. El Hassan Bin Talal,Crown Prince of Jordan:

"At times of international turmoil,lack of understanding and reaching outamongst the nations of the world, it is agreat pleasure to send heartiestcongratulations to you, a dear friend,whose contributions have not beenconfined to your own country, but to theworld at large. It is not for me to

enormous achievements you have madein your professional career and as NobelLaureate as well as Founder Director ofthe International Centre for TheoreticalPhysics on the celebratioi of your 65thbirthday. You are, no doubt, a credit notonly to your country alone, but to theThird World for all your qchievements.

Among your achievements are thePresidency of the Third World Academyof Sciences, Third World Network ofScientific Organisations and numerousother awards, including q D.Sc. (Hons.)from the (Jniversity of Maiduguri,Nigeria, in 1981.

We wish long life and many morereturns on this occasion of your 65thbirthday. Personally, and on behalf ofthe people of Nigeria, I would like tosend you messages of goodwill and bestwishes. May the Almighty Allah blessand guide us all in our variousendeavours."H.E. the President of Sri Lanka:

"I wish you good health and long lifeso that you may continue with Your

e\rs l'rom ICTP - No. 12143 - Januarv/Februarv 1991

exemplary services in the field ofScience and Technology".H.E. Omer Hassan Ahmed El-Beshir, Chairman of theRevolution Command Councilof Sudan:

"On your 65th birthday Mttslimscientists feel proud. Third WorldAcademicians claim distinction.Internationql Scientific Community haila prominent member.

May Allah bless you and give youmore knowledge."Dr. Hans Blix, Director Generalof the International AtomicEnergy Agency:

"Important commitments prevent meJVom being with yotr in Trieste, today,on the occasion of your 65th birthdaybut I wish to add my congratulations tothose of so many distinguished guestshonouring your accomplishments andpaying well deserved tribute to youruntiring efforts to promote thedevelopment of science in the ThirdWorld.

Thanks to you and your staff, theacronym ICTP and the city of Triestehave become familiar to all physicists;and more than 40 000 of them in thepast 27 years have been associated, inone way or another, with ICTP'sactivities.

Under your guidance, the Centre hasknown a tremendous development andsuccess and while the generous, everincreasing, support of Italy to theactivities in Trieste must be gratefullyacknowledged, there is no doubt that atthe base of this support are the ideas andideals underpinning your work.

The Agency takes pride in its longassociation with ICTP activities andintends to continue its financial andother support to the programmeirrespective of any future changes thatthe expansion and diversification ofICTP activities might moke desirable. "

Silver Dirac Medal

The Silver Dirac Medal for theAdvancement of Theoretical Physics isawarded by the University of New SouthWales on the occasion of the PublicDirac Lecture. The lecture and theMedal commemorate the visit to theUniversity in 1975 of Professor P.A.M.Dirac, one of the greatest theoreticalphysicists of the century. ProfessorDirac gave five lectures at theUniversity, which were subsequentlypublished as a book, Directions of

Physics. Professor Dirac kindly donatedthe royalties from this book to theUniversity for the establishment of theDirac Lecture Series. The Silver DiracMedal has been awarded from 1979.

Since then the Medal was awarded tothe speakers of the "Public DiracLectutes". These are the followingprominent persons who delivered theLectures:7919 — Professor Hannes Alfven,Nobel Laureate;1981 - Professor John C. Ward, FRS;1983 — Professor NicholasBloembergen, Nobel Laureate;1985 — Professor David Pines.M.Am.Ac.Sc.;1981 — Professor Robert Hofstadter,Nobel Laureate;1988 — Professor Klaus von Klitzing,Nobel Laureate;1989 — Professor Carlo Rubbia, NobelLaureate;1989 — Professor Kenneth Wilson.Nobel Laureate;1990 — Professor Norman F. Ramsay,Nobel Laureate;7997 — Professor Herbert A.Hauptman, Nobel Laureate.

The Silver Dirac Medal waspresented in the name of the Universityby the Vice Chancellor. All lectureswere supported by the AustralianInstitute of Physics. The Dean is theChairman of the Committee and theHead of the Department of TheoreticalPhysics is the ex-officio convenor.Members of the Committee are theHeads of the School of Physics,Chemistry and Mathematics or theirrepresentatives.

If you have any queries please writeto: Professor Heinrich Hora. Convenorof the Dirac Committee. UNSW.Kensington, Australia.

M. Farooque

Degree Honoris Causato Abdus Salam

The Dean of the Faculty of Scienceof Dakar University announced thatAbdus Salam, Nobel Laureate forPhysics and Director of the InternationalCentre for Theoretical Physics inTrieste, will be awarded a degree honoriscausa by the University Cheikh AntaDiop of Dakar, Senegal, for "deepknowledge of the scientific world,international fame of his works andresearch, especially in the field ofphysics, and their impact on Africa".

The honorary title will also be

awarded to the Italian Prime MinisterAndreotti.

This initiative of the Faculty of Lawwas unanimously approved by theuniversity board of the African institute.

The Brain

Courte.s)' of Thc Economirt,February 16th, 1991.

To understand the human mind willtake a lot more ideas, techniques andhard slog than are yet available.

Ask a scientist what the mostglaring piece of human ignorance is andhe will reply in all sorts of ways. If heis solid-state physicist, he might say themechanism of superconductivity; if aparticle physicist, the origin of mass ora so-called "theory of everything"; if abiologist, the origin of life of the stillutterly mysterious phenomenon ofageing; if an astronomer, dark matter orthe big bang or the enigma ofextraterrestrial intelligence; if apaleontologist, the cause of massextinctions.

But by far the most likely reply fromalmost any kind of scientist is twowords: "the brain". To develop a theoryof the mind would complete atriumphant scientific hat-trick for thecentury: first the atom, then the gene,and now the mind.

Those two are encouragingprecedents. Neuroscience stands todayroughly where atomic physics was in1919, when Ernest Rutherford discoveredthe nucleus, or where molecular biologystood in 1944 when Oswald Averyproved that the genetic material wasmade of DNA. In both cases theproblem seemed suddenly vulnerable toattack, and in both cases there remainedhuge surprises. It was unthinkable in1919 thal physics would have to enterthe looking-glass world of the quantumor in 1,944 that molecular biology wouldsoon be a matter of reading a cipherwritten in three-letter words in a four-letter alphabet.

Likewise, neuroscientists do notreally know what questions they shouldbe asking. So far they have mostlybeen doing phenomenology: a personwith a tumour here loses speech, onewith a tumour there loses memory; toomuch dopamine seems to be linked toschizophrenia, too little to Parkinson'sdisease; birds grow new neurons whenthey learn new songs, mammals do not;

6


ion channels in synapses alter whensomething is learnt — and so on. A11true, all intriguing, but so far merelydescriptive. One of the troubles withphenomenology is that it often leads toa trivial symptom and not a cause. Thealpha waves of sleep, for example, mayturn out to be as relevant to the workingof a brain as noise is to the function of agun.

In both the atom and the gene, thegreatest surprise was the simplicity ofthe final result: the Schrcidinger modelof the atom and the triplet code of DNA.In 1919 atd 1944 there was no guaranteethat either problem would be so easilyunderstood.

Terrence Sejnowski of the Universityof California at San Diego, aneuroscientist, takes heart from this. Hebelieves a principle as simple as thegenetic code or the periodic table inchemistry may yet emerge for the brain,though he admits he has no candidatesyet. The individual neurons that makeup the brain are well understood; theway they link together in simplenetworks to carry out functions such asdetecting edges in the visual field isbecoming clear; the way whole networkscombine to form whole systems ofvision, memory, mood and so on are asyet obscure.

Most neuroscientists think thatconsciousness, whatever that means,will prove to be their central problem,but they will need guidance from thephilosophers to identify it first.Attention is another candidate. One ofthe most intriguing finds of recent yearsis a candidate for attention at least invision: a semi-synchronised oscillationin the activity of neurons at about 40hertz may be responsible for the abilityto concentrate on one thing in the visualfield. Reoresentation is a thirdcandidate. Vision scientists are gropingtowards an understanding of what thebrain does when it sees — or conjuresup — an image.

Which approach to the brain willyield the best results? In the past fewdecades there have been fashions foranatomy (left brain-right brain, or thelocalisation of language in Broca's andWernicke's areas), for neurochemistry(the discovery in the 1970s ofneuropeptides that seemed to affectsleep, pain and mood), and more recentlyfor computei- simulations of how partsof the brain work. Dr Sejnowski hashigh hopes of optical recordingtechniques by which it will be possibleto film the firings of groups of neurons

almost as they happen. Mr. Maddox.the editor of Nature, who has seen thesefashions come and go, expects a differentfashion to sweep the science: a fashionfor studying genetic mutations,introduced into mice, which seem toknock out specific brain functions.

More genes are switched on in thebrain than in any other organ, saysDavid Baltimore of RockefellerUniversity, one of the pioneers of thisapproach. Daniel Koshland of theUniversity of California at Berkeley, theeditor of Science magazine, now haspure cell lines that can both "habituate"and "potentisfs" —• in other wotds,learning had been transferred to the testtube. John Tooze of the EuropeanMolecular Biology Organisation inHeidelberg says the wiring problem ofthe brain (how each neuron knows whereto connect to each other one) mustinvolve "molecular recognition" gvents.In other words, here come to molecularbiologists.

The physicists are coming, too.Roger Penrose of Oxford has written abook claiming to argue from firstprinciples that new kinds of physics willbe necessary to understandconsciousness. Sam Edwards, at theCavendish Laboratory in Cambridge,points out how a startling new branch ofmathematics (for those who understandthese things, one illustrated by theRayleigh-Taylor instability equations)seems ideally suited to explain thegrowth patterns of neurons.

One of the messy aspects ofneuroscience is that facts abound andtheories abound but the two do notneatly intersect. So the subject has beendogged by metaphor. In the 19thcentury, mechanical or thermodynamicanalogies dominated speculation aboutthe brain. In the 1960s the sequentialcomputgr, with a memory and a centralprocessing unit, became the dominantmodel. At the same time there was abrief enthusiasm for the notion thatmemory was a hologram. Today,parallel computing is the dominantmetaphor for much of the brain.

The neural-network boomThe mistake has been to take these

analogies too seriously. The brain ismore like a computer or a telephonenetwork than it is like a water mill or acar, but that does not mean it need haveanything specific in common withmankind's lumps of silicon. Thehistory of computing serves only toemphasise that man has invented

something very different from a brain:something that is good at precise, fast,encyclopedic memory, sorting andcalculation (and perhaps chess), but notat painting, politics or philosophy.

One of the analogies borrowed fromcomputing that might prove misleadingis the distinction between software andhardware. Scientists have usually keptdistinct the fast, reversible changes thatoccur as signals pass along nerves(software) from the slowet, morepermanent changes in the synapsesbetween nerves, which enable signals topass more or less easily next time(hardware). Yet many insist that this isan artificial distinction. Indeed, changesin synapses can last any length of timefrom milliseconds to hours, fromsoftware to hardware.

None the less, the technology ofartificial intelligence is now a standardoart of neuroscience. As a result it isoossible that a main function of the6rain (probably vision) may besimulated on a computer before it is"understood". This is because the recentfashion in artificial intelligence is forneural networks that "learn" how tosolve problems by adjusting thestrengths of the interconnectionsbetween layers of units until the desiredsolution emerges. This is a quitedifferent kind of computing from thatpractised by normal computers, whichmust be given specific instructions forevery step.

Not that neural networks deserve theextravagant hopes placed on them inrecent years by venture capitalists (andby the Defence Department: even someartillery shells now caffy neuralnetworks). They are, in a sense, littlemore than an expression of humanignorance about how to program parallelcomputers. They are run on ordinarycomputers, but they aspire to haveparallel properties. Many of thecompanies formed to exploit them inbusiness are doing little that is"intelligent" and much that is artificial.Yet they are clearly a closer analogy tohow the intelligent parts of the brainwork than was the preceding fad inartificial intelligence, expert systems.

The fashion for parallelism may havea broader significance. It is part of awider pattern. In a number of differentsciences at the same time, parallel,evolutionary ideas are replacingsequential, cause -an d-effect ones. Thismight be coincidence. Or it might bethat most thrilling of scientific beasts, aparadigm shift.

News from ICTP - No. 42143 - January/Februarv 1991

G.D. Birla Awardfor Sir Hermann Bondi

The prestigious G.D. BirlaInternational Award for OutstandingContribution to Humanism waspresented in New Delhi on 10 November1990 to Sir Hermann Bondi by Vice-President Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma at asimple function at the FICCIauditorium.

Sir Hermann, the internationallyacclaimed scientist and humanist, is thesecond recipient of the award — the firstbeing Baba Amte.

The award carries convertible cashworth Rs 5 lakh besides a crest and acitation. The award is conferredbiennially.

The citation read out at the ceremonyby Dr. Raja Ramanna, a member offive-member jury, mentions thepowerful and passionate voice raised bySir Hermann over the years againstreligious and political bigotry. "He haschampioned the humanist cause with asuperb, Shakespearean recognition thatMan is the quintessence of dust", thecitation adds.

Soon after presenting Sir Hermannwith the coveted award, Vice-PresidentDr. Shankar Dayal Sharma in his addresscalled upon all the scientists of theworld to rise against the misuse of thescience that threatened the very existenceof the universe.

Calling for conscious efforts toevolve educational systems, both in thedeveloped and the developing countries,in such a manner that the focus was notonly on developing intellectual facultiesbut also ethical sensibilities, Dr.Sharma stated that India had such atradition since hundreds of years in thepast.

Awareness: The Vice-Presidentstated that the emphasis on promotingawareness of the essential unity andcommon ethical values of all the greatreligions as a part of the educationalprocess could safeguard and forewarn theyoung minds vis-d-vis the dangers anddefects of narrow thinking.

Referring to the specific Indiantraditions, the Vice-President said thatthis tradition regarded both science andreligion to be really meaningful only tothe extent of its service to humanity." We also seek to avoid, in either scienceor religion any presumption of finality,ebsoluteness or exclusivity ofconclusions," he added.

Stressing the importance of science

in the evolution of human civilisation.Dr. Sharma stated that there was aninner linkage between the apparentlydiverse objectives and disciplines ofscience and religion. However, theVice-President asserted that in India,science and religion were concerned withthe search for truth.

In his acceptance speech, SirHermann Bondi while paying homage tothe visionary and missionary seal of thelate G.D. Birla during his lifetime bothas an industrialist and a freedom-fighter,stated that he felt honoured to beassociated with such a coveted award.

Sir Hermann stressed the imoortanceof making people of dilferent r.ligions.countries and continents work togetherfor a better world. "Sir Hermannasserted that the cooperation waspossible only through the evolution of ascientific temper among the humans".

Calling upon the people to leave abetter planet — the earth — for thefuture generations for optimum pleasureand wellbeing. Sir Hermann forcefullyput forth the import of the programmeat a global level so that the increasingnumbers were kept under check.

Paying tribute to the resilience ofIndian democracy, Sir Hermann statedthat it is a matter of pride that despitemany a problem confronting the peoplehere, the Constitution asserted the primeimportance of secularism and socialismand also that of a scientific temperamong its citizens.

Among others who spoke at thefunction were the Chairperson of BirlaAcademy of Art and Culture, Mrs. SarlaBirla, and Mr. Aditya Birla, the notedindustrialist.

The function was attended by a largenumber of eminent personalities.Members of Parliament besides anumber of diolomats.

Organizing one's OwnConference Can Fill

a Scientific Void

by Jeff Seiken

From "The Scientist", June 11, 1990;Copyright 1990, "The Scientist".

All ri.ghts reserved.Reprinted by permission.

Sadao Mori's proposal soundedpromising to Du Pont chemist HowardBarth. Mori, a researcher at MieUniversity in Japan, had contacted Barth,an active member of the American

Chemical Society, in early 1987,seeking his assistance in setting up aconference on polymer analysis underthe auspices of ACS and its Japanesecounterpart. While talking over the ideawith Mori, however, Barth was struckby a new notion: Why not enlarge thescope of the meeting and bring scientistsstudying polymer characterization intothe fold as well?

Such a gathering would be a novelone, for despite the natural overlap thatexisted between the fields of polymeranalysis and polymer characleization,scientists working in each area rarclyintersected on a professional basis. InBarth's view, arranging a jointconference seemed like the perfect wayto break down the wall separating thetwo camps of polymer scientists.

And if he was going to toppleprofessional barriers, Barth thought,why not tackle national ones as well?The chemist envisioned making theconference truly global in scale, shiftingits location to a new country every year.The only hitch in his scheme was thatthis sort of globetrotting arrangementruled out ACS involvement.Confronted with the prospect of havingto modify his vision of the conference toconform with ACS policy, Barth electedto run the symposium himself.

To set things in motion, Barth sank$1,000 of his own funds into themeeting for legal counsel and stationerysupplies. He figured that revenues fromregistration fees would cover the bulk ofhis costs. In retrospect, though, he saysthat his plans were fraught with a littleperil. "The first meeting, financially,was touch-and-9o," ho recalls. "Iestimated a worse-case scenario of 50 to70 [registrants]. I figured that there hadto be at least 50 people who would beinterested enough to come. If I could dothat, great." If not, he would havesuffered a financial loss.

As it turned out, 90 scientistsshowed up for the First InternationalSymposium on Polymer Analysis andCharacterization at the University ofToronto in the summer of 1988, morethan enough for Barth to meet hisexpenses. The conference was alsosufficiently successful to ensure itscontinued survival. The third suchsymposium is scheduled to take placeJuly 23-25 in Brno, Czechoslovakia,with attendance expected to top 200.

Responding To NeedsBarth is one of a number of

scientists who have bvpassed normal

8

News from ICTP - No. zl2l43 - January/February 1991

channels and organized conferences ontheir own initiative. The primaryimpetus behind most of these home-grown affairs is need. Although thescientific community certainly suffersfrom no shortage of symposia, there'sstill a demand for small-scale forumsthat address the interests of individualclusters of researchers.

The desire for autonomy can alsoplay a part in the decision to go it alone.As Barth's story demonstrates, managinga conference from start to finish securesthe organizers not only the freedom toset their own agenda, but also theflexibility to conduct the meeting asthey see fit.

Yet it's sometimes more than mereselfless dedication to the advancement ofone's science or an independent turn ofmind that prods a researcher into action;the urge to engage in a little self-promotion can serve as a spur as well.When he launched a conference onnitrogen fixation in the early 1970s, forexample, chemist William Newton'sovert intentions were to establish aclearinghouse for research in the field.But Newton, who at the time wasworking at the Charles F. KetteringResearch Laboratory in Ohio,acknowledges that he also hoped thegathering might ease the lab's fundingproblems. A conference would be "oneway for us to tell people what we'redoing and convince them how good weare and that they should give us money,"he says.

Scientists should not expect to profitpersonally fiom conference organizing,however. Once a conference olannerbecomes established and well acceoted.Barth says. "it may be possible to makea few bucks out of it. But for a newsymposium, it doesn't pay."

Initiative A MustRegardless of one's motives, starting

a conference from the ground up is not atask to be undertaken lightly, veterans ofthe process warn. It takes someinitiative, says Jim Rollings, a chemicalengineer at Worcester PolytechnicInstitute who has arranged a series ofbiotechnology conferences. "You haveto figure out everything that has to bedone, because you don't have the supportof a society."

'lEverything that has to be done"includes such" responsibilities as decidingwhen and where to hold the meeting,whether to seek outside assistance andsponsorship, and what sort of programand format to adopt. Although this list

is by no means all-inclusive. it doesembrace the salient questions that allprospective organizers must consider inthe course of planning a conference.

Crucial DecisionsThe very first order of business calls

for gauging whether the interest in themeeting actually exists. "Technically,there has to be a need," Barth explains."One has to have a good idea what'salready out there and if a niche can befilled. I contacted a number of people inthe area of polymer characterization justto get their input and see if they thoughtit was a worthwhile venture. Then I outtogether a governing board of well-respected scientists in the area who[agreed] to help me out."

Once the viability of a meeting isdetermined. then the organizer canproceed to hammer out thearrangements. When it comes topicking a date, it's essential tocoordinate the timing of the event withthe schedules of the prospectiveattendees. In other words, if academicscientists constitute the principalaudience for a gathering, it can becounterproductive to run the meetingduring the middle of a semester.

A corollary to this rule is to avoidconflicts with any conference likely tosiphon off attendance from one's own.However, smart organizers cansometimes use the drawing power ofanother group's meeting to theiradvantage. That's exactly what Barlh didwhen he arranged to hold last year'spolymer conference in Austin, Texas,the weekend before ACS' spring bash inDallas. "I figured it would beconvenient for people attending thenational ACS meeting to stop by," hesays.

To some extent, the timing of ameeting can be dictated by its location,as geologist Henry Halls discoveredwhen he tried to find a suitable date for a1985 conference on the ancient sheets ofrock known as dikes. He had elected tohost the symposium on his home turf— the University of Toronto's ErindaleCampus •— and accommodate attendeesin the dormitories, a decision thatinstantly narrowed his choices down tothe few months when school was not insession. The college's priorcommitments further restricted the timeswhen its facilities would be available.

Complicating the issue even morewere the work routines of theconference's audience. "You can't have fageology meetingl in the summei.

because geologists are away in thefield," Halls says. He eventuallymanaged to reserve a slot in early Junethat satisfied all of the parties involved.

Location is partly a matter ofeconomics. Reserving a conventioncenter or a block of hotel rooms in mostcities requires some form of credit orseed money. Without either, one'soptions are curtailed considerably.Caught in this sort of financial squeezewhen casting about for a conference sitehis first time around, Barth ended upgoing the college campus route, holdingthe meeting at the University ofToronto. While the accommodationswere not as posh as he would have liked,Barth says, the university did have theundeniable advantage of not asking forpayment in advance.

Brigham Young University chemistMilton Lee, on other hand, enjoyed theluxury of a $15,000 state grant awardedhim for the purposes of organizing aconference on suoercr i t icalchromatography in Utah. With such afat bankroll in hand, Lee could afford toselect any site in the state for theJanuary 1986 meeting. He chose ParkCity, a locale that not only was close tohis own offices at Brigham Young, butalso had the added appeal of being one ofUtah's premier ski resorts.

There are still numerous otherlogistical details that must be attended toas well. It can all seem a littledaunting, but help in various forms isavailable, often just for the asking.

Sources of HelpAccording to Geri Goodenough,

director of scientific meetings at theFederated Association of AmericanSocieties for Experimental Biology(FASEB), neophyte conferenceorganizers are welcome at her door,although she does charge a fee for herservices, depending on the degree ofassistance requested. "I tell them what'snegotiable with the hotel or conventioncenter and give them advice onsuppliers, and how to solicit for fundingif they need it," she says.

ACS' meeting office extends similarassistance to conlerence-organizingscientists who feel overburdened by theirresponsibilities. "We can provideconference management services at anylevel: We can just handle registration orsend out mailings and brochures, or wecan do the whole works," reportsChristine Pruitt, Goodenough'scounterpart at ACS. In exchange, Pruittmerely asks that ACS members receive


a discount on registration. Her officealso distributes upon request a bookletabout conference management, a sort ofdo-it-yourself guide explaining varioustrade secrets, including tips onnegotiating with hotels and dealing withexhibitors. Conference organizers donot have to be members of ACS orFASEB to take advantage of theseservices, as long as their meeting is ofpotential interest to society members.

The source of support closest athand, though, is often the organizer'sown institution. In laying thegroundwork for the first nitrogenfixation symposium, for instance,Newton was able to turn over most ofthe financial and administrativeresponsibilities to the businessmanagers at the Kettering Lab, leavinghim free to concentrate on the scientificend of the conference. Newton creditsthe aid he received from the KetteringLab as being crucial to his meeting'soverall success, not to mention his ownpeace of mind. "You need someorganization in order to help you dothis, to share the workload, and share theblame," he advises.

This is not to say that it'simpossible to conduct a meeting relyingstrictly on your own sensibilities forguidance. Brigham Young's Milton Leehas run both his International Symposiaon Supercritical Chromatography asone-man shows, handling all of thearrangements himself and evendispensing with a governing board. "It'seasier to control if I make all of thedecisions. It's too time-consuming toorganize a scientific committee orboard," he says.

Financial AidThe biggest question mark hanging

over most first-time conferences tends tobe finances. Relying or registration feesalone to pay for the conference puts onein a precarious position, especially ifexpenses prove to be higher, orattendance lower, than expected. Oneway around this problem is to solicitmoney from outside agencies. TheNational Science Foundation, forexample, issues grant money forconferences as part of its normal fundingactivities.

Industry is another source ofpotential assistance. In preparation forthe third installment of his svmoosiumcoming up next January. Lee asked 30different companies for funds. As bait,he dangled the offer of free registrationfor one or two employees and mention

in the program booklet as sponsor. Sofar, he reports, the response has beenencouraging, with six or seven firmspromising commitments.

It's also possible to approach ascientific society like FASEB or ACSasking for a sponsorship that involvesno financial component. The chiefvalue of such a setup is that theimprimatur of a respected organizationlends one's meeting credibility. Andthere may be other benefits as well.When Barth signed on the InternationalUnion of Pure and Applied Chemistry(IUPAC) as a sponsor for this year'spolymer symposium in Czechoslovakia,the society agreed to publicize themeeting in its journal and assistattendees in attaining visas.

If sponsorship is forthcoming,however, the advantages it brings mayalso involve certain obligations. Forinstance, while landing NSF's backingfor the first symposium on nitrogenfixation solved all of William Newton'sfinancial worries, he did have to bow tothe foundation's wishes and hold thegathering at Washington StateUniversity. "The NSF had an interest inpushing some work that was ongoing atthat campus, so we compromised onsites," he says. As part of the terms ofhis arrangement with IUPAC, Barth isgranting members a L0 percent discounton admission to his meeting inCzechoslovakia and is allowing thesociety to pick the journal in which theproceedings of the meeting will bepublished.

Agenda SettingIn devising a program for a new

meeting, Halls suggests, the importantpoint to remember is "keep it wellfocused. Make sure there's a distinctkind of problem for people to thinkabout," he says.

Some thought also needs to be givento the expectations of the attendingscientists, especially if the meeting istargeted at a mixed audience of academicand industrial researchers. Rollingsadvises meeting planners to talk withboth segments and have a give-and-takeabout what each group wants. "Youmay have to have some flexibility aboutthe agenda to attract the audience youwant to reaeh," he says.

A conference's format can be just asimportant as its content in promotingthe orgatizet's goals for a meeting. Forinstance, one of Newton's objectives forhis meeting was to fosterinterdisciplinary communication among

researchers in nitrogen fixation.Therefore, rather than conduct parallelsessions, which can easily result in ameeting segregated along disciplinarylines, he decided to go with singlesessions. That way, "people working atthe chemical end would get a feel forwhat's going on at the genetic or theagricultural end, and vice versa," heexplains.

Is Once Enough?The last issue to be resolved is the

symposium's frequency — is theconference to be a recurring event, and,if so, how often should it meet? Theanswer to the latter half of this questionlargely depends on the pace of researchwithin the particular area. In Newton'sfield, a two-year timetable seemed bestsuited to the rate of new development."A two-year cycle is one where we couldbe pretty certain that somewhere withinthe overall research effort that nitrogenfixation encompasses there would bereasonable progress and make itworthwhile for us to get together again,"he says. The nitrogen fixationconference just celebrated its eighthmeeting last month in Knoxville, Ten.

Once was enough for Henry Halls.Three weeks before his meeting was tooccur. he remembers. the number ofconfirmed attendees totaled only 70,which meant the conference would beoperating at a loss. A last-minute surgein registration actually enabled Halls toturn a profit, but the stress was enoughto induce him to bow out of theconference business. "When you're incharge, you carry the [responsibility].You can imagine all sorts of horriblescenarios." he says. "The worry and thepotential for ulcers — that's why Iwouldn't do it again."

But the conference Halls initiated ondike forms is not dead. Inspired byHall's lead, the delegation from Australiastood up at the meeting in 1985 andpledged to host another gathering fiveyears later. Halls has retained a spot onthe governing board, but the onlyresponsibility he faces this time aroundis figuring out how to get himself toAdelaide(...).

Tips for Conference Organizers* Assess the need for a confei.dncefirst. Canvass your colleagues for theiropinions.* Take into account the schedules andcommitments of your intended audience.Avoid conflicts with other meetingsthese scientists mieht attend.

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News from ICTP - No. 42l43 - January/Februar.r- 1991

• Be aware of sources of assistance,such as the meetings division of aprofessional society or the conferenceplanning office at your university.• Seek financial support or otherforms of sponsorship if you feel suchbacking is needed. However, make sureyou understand how the terms of thearrangement affect your independence.• Keep the meeting focused. Don't tryto address too broad a range of issues'

Settle on a format for the meetingthat best suits your goals.

JeffSeiken is a freelance writer basedin Pittsbursh.

School of Mathematicsand Allied Sciences,

Gwalior, India

The Department which took shapefrom 1984 was planned to develop acentre of higher learning inbiomathematics including computerapplications in biology. The firstactivity in this direction was the researchin the area of mathematical andnumerical study of physiological heatflow problems, including mathematicalmodelling of cancerous tumors inhuman subjects and polycythemia vera.Extensive use and modifications in finiteelement methods have been envisagedfor this purpose. Later on, the groupactivity was extended to new areas likemathematical ecology. This includesresearch on population dynamics,epidemiology, environmental pollutionand pheromone communication inanimals. The size of the group alsowent on enlarging which still continues.At the same time the emphasis isalways laid on an integrated approach tovarious subdisciplines. It is needless tosay that necessary computer facilitieswere also acquired during due course oftime. The members of the group wereencouraged to have interaction withother international centres. As a resultof this, one faculty is visiting ImperialCollege, London, and another left forICTP to attend the Workshop onMathematical Ecology. The membersalso participated in short-terminternational academic programmesrelated with the field.

At present the School ofMathematics and Allied Sciences is awell known cantre of research inbiomathematics. The activities at thecentre include mathematical modellingof diflusion and flow. processes in

Tltc Department Building of the School of Mathematics, Gwalior.

Prof. V.P. Saxena ( Chair man) in discussion session with his collehgues.

The Computer Centre

11

\ ews from ICTP - No. 42143 - January/February 1991

biological media and their analysis usingcomputer oriented numerical andmathematical techniques. TheSOMAAS has an active group workingon biomath.ematics headed by Prof. V.P.Saxena and comprising of four morefacultv members. and about ten otherresearch workers. Apart from thisactivity the department has thefollowing regular academic programmes:1. M.Sc. (Master of Science) — GroupA: biomathematics, numerical analysis,operations research; Group B: systemanalysis, data processing, optimizationmethods, simulation, databasemanagement systems, computerprogramming.2. M.Phil (Master of Philosophy) —physiological flow problems,mathematical ecology, population,dynamics, futurology.3. P.G.D.C.A. (Post-graduate Diplomain Computer Applications) — systemsimulation, management informationsystems, computer oriented numericaland statistical techniques.4. Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) —This degree is awarded by thesis andviva-voce examination.

International Colloquiumon Physics

The XIX International Colloquiumon "Group Theoretical Methods inPhysics" shall be held in Salamanca,Spain, from Jlune 29 to July 5, 1,992.

For information, please contact theChairman of the Organizing Committee:Prof. Luis J. BoyaDepartamento de Fisica Te6ricaUniversity of Zaragoza50.009 ZaragozaSpain.Phone:34-76-554214Fax: 34-76-567920E-mail: [email protected]

Activities at ICTPJanuary-February 1991

Title: SECOND COLLEGE ONTHEORETICAL AND EXPERIM-ENTAL RADIOPROPAGATIONPHYSICS, 7 January - 1 February.

Organizers : Professors J. VanBladel (Secretary General, Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale, URSI, andUniversity of Gent, Belgium) and S.M.Radicella (Programa Nacional deRadiopropagaci6n, PRONARP, BuenosAires, Argentina and ICTP), with the

co-sponsorship of URSI and theInternational Council of ScientificUnions (ICSU, Paris, France) and withthe participation of the InternationalCentre for Science and High Technology(ICS, Trieste, Italy).

Lectures: Response of linearcircuits and systems. Fourier series andintegrals. DFT and FFT. Noise andprobability. Analog modulation.Maxwell's equations. Potentials.Boundary conditions. Digitalmodulation. Transmission lines. Powerbudget. Poynting's vector. Informationtheory. Sinusoidal phenomena.Polarization. Modes and eigenfunctions.Closed electromagnetic waveguides.Plane waves. Reflection andtransmission at plane interfaces. Farfield — time harmonic sources. Apertureantennas. General equivalent circuit.Antenna arrays. Scattering cross-sections. Doppler effect. The radarequation. Radiopropagation problems intropical regions. High frequencycommunication problems. Ionospherictime delay effects on earth-space links.Scintillation effects on transionosphericcommunications. Troposphericpropagation: present aspects andapproaches . Electromagnet iccompatibility. Radio frequency spectrummanagement.

Computer exercises. Open discussionon telecommunications problem indeveloping countries.

Participants' seminars: Groupactivity report at Banares HinduUniversity. A brief introduction toCRIRP. Efforts at instrumentation,instrument network and communicationlinks development for meteorologicaland environmental monitoring purposes.Microwave line of sight propagationsystem design. Problem on Ghana'scommunication network; university-industry collaboration — an alternativeapproach in solving them. HFpropagation over the very long distance.Comparison of IRL with ionosphereobserved in China. Longitudinal controlof the occurrence of equatorialionospheric plasma bubbles andobservations on their eastward drift.Radiowave reflection from paraboliclayer of absorbitive plasma (ionosphere):isotropic case, anisotropic case (circularand line polarization), stochastic case.Transequatorial propagation of TVsignals. Faraday polarizationfluctuations associated with amplitudescintillations at Lunping. Ionosphericscintillations. Time domain transientelectromagnetic field studies. Upon

lighting direction finding system.Ionospheric modification experimentsover Fairbanks, Alaska. Pertainingresearch on natural generation ofpropagation of electromagnetic waves.Tropospheric propagation. 450 MHZmobile radio propagation. Mobilecommunication.

The College was attended by 67lecturers and participants (58 fromdeveloping countries).

Title: FIFTH INTERNATIONALWORKSHOP ON COMPUTATIONALCONDE,NSED MATTER PHYSICS,16 - 18 January.

O r g a n i z e r s : Professors M.Schliiter (AT&T Bells Laboratories,Murray Hill, USA), R. Car and R.Resta (International School for AdvancedStudies, SISSA, Trieste, Italy), with theco-sponsorship of SISSA.

Lectures: Correlated ground statesfor real materials. Calculations of theproperties of solids with Green'sfunction MC. QMC studies ofmaterials: magnetic structures of BCChydrogen. Dynamics of the Andersonmodel from QMC and maximumentropy. Precise and efficient ab-initiomolecular dynamics. Pseudopotentials,pseudohamiltonians and physical ions.GW quasiparticle pseudopotentials.Imolementation of ultra softpseudopotentials in ab-initio moleculardynamics. Car-Par rinello-likeimplementation of the APW method.Strongly correlated models for high T"

superconductivity. Lattice dynamics andstructural instabilities in high T"

superconductors. Ab-initio study ofzone-boundary phonons and theircoupling to electrons in YBa2Cu3O7and Ba1-aKaBiO3. Electronic structureand positron annihilation in high T"

superconductors: the problem of theFermi surface. Localization in the self-interaction corrected density functionalformalism. Static and dynamicalproperties of quantum many-bodysystems: finite cluster calculations.High energy spectroscopies comparedwith exact solutions of multiband modelHamiltonians. Model for low energyelectronic states probed by X-rayabsorption in high T" cuprates. Self-consistent electronic structure of avorlex line in a type-ll superconductor.Dielectric response and quasiparticleenergies in Ni. Quantum-mechanicalcalculations of the spontaneouspolarization: pyroelectric BeO.Alternative total energy functionals in

1.2

Nervs from ICTP - No. ,12l43 - Januan Iebnutr\ 1991

DFT. First principles energy density andits application to GaAs polar surfaces.First-principle statistical mechanics ofsemiconductor and metal alloys.Structure and thermodynamics of Si-Gealloys from ab-initio Monte Carlosimulations. Alloy formation in theeffective medium theory. Ordering inCu-Au alloys: a new approach to alloyphase stability. Ab-initio studies of theSi(111) surface. Theory of electrontransmission through interfaces.Comment about density functionalcalculations of Schottky barrier heights.Exchange and correlation in Schottkybarriers and heterojunctions. A self-consistent surface Green-functionmethod: chemical trends, bondingmechanisms and charge transfer ofisolated adatoms on A/(100) andA(111). Ab-initio calculations of selfdiffusion constants in Si. Ab-initiocalculation of free energies in realmaterials: application to the vacancyformation in Si. First principlesmolecular dynamics simulations ofamorphous phosphorus and liquid andamorphous selenium. Ab-initomolecular dynamics simulation of liquidNa-Sn alloy. Summary and outlook.

The Workshop was attended by 151lecturers and participants (30 fromdeveloping countries).

Title: WINTER COLLEGE ON''MULTILEVEL TECHNIQUES INCOMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS(Physics and computations withmultiple scales of lengths), 21 January -1 February.

Organizers: Professors S. Baroni(International School for AdvancedStudies, SISSA, Trieste, Italy), A.Brandt (Weizmann Institute of Sciences,Rehovot, Israel) and C. Rebbi (BostonUniversity, USA), with the co-sponsorship of SISSA.

L e c t u r e s : Mu l t i s ca l ecomputations: tasks and types. Tutorialon modern iterative methods. Multigridtutorial. Multigrid methods for PDE's:general approaches, basic algorithmiccomponents, demonstration software andintroduction to hands-on experiment-ation. Full approximation scheme(FAS): nonlinearity, Eigen-problems,continuation, frozen tau, localrefinements. Local mode analysis ofmultigrid. Multilevel adaptive methods:basic ideas. Modern iterative methods:conjugate-gradient-like methods.Multigrid and programming exercises.FAS, Eigen problems, frozen tau.

constrained optimization. Boundaries,singularities, discontinuous coefficients,operator dependent coarsening. Freeexercises and question answering.Multilevel integral transform and manybody calculations. Multigriddevelopment in general relativity.Meaning of ellipticity and multigrid forgeneral non-scalar systems. Multigridmethods for Navier Stokes equations.Multigrid at vanishing ellipticity.Algebraic multigrid (AMG). Multigridmethods for transport problems.Multigrid for time-dependent problems.Rare local activation of fine scales.Parallelization in time. Introduction toMonte Carlo methods in statisticalmechanics and quantum field theory.Introduction to lattice gauge theories.Introduction to electronic-structurecalculations. Coarsening particlesimulations and multigrid derivation ofmacroscopic equations. Introduction tolattice fermions. Multilevel targettedmatrix inversion and determinantcalculations. Fermionic matrix: fastinversions and determinant uodates.Approximate stochastic coarsening andfast calculations of thermodynamiclimits. Multigrid for fermions in latticegauge theory. Multigrid Monte Carlo forlattice field theories. Multilevel solversfor integral equations and inverseproblems. Computer simulation of theliquid-vapour phase transition.Multilevel global optimizatiott. Clusteralgorithms for lattice gauge theory.Monte Carlo methods for self-avoidingrandom walks. Concluding remarks andfuture prospectives. Tutorial on Car-Parrinello methods.


Ti t le : SECOND TRAININGCOLLEGE ON PHYSICS ANDTECHNOLOGY OF LASERS ANDOPTICAL FIBRES, 2I January - 75February.

Organizers: Professors G. Denardo(ICTP), G. Guekos (EidgenossischeTechnische Hochschule Honggerberg,ETH, Zurich, Switzerland), M. Matera(Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche,Istituto Elettronica Quantistica,Florence, Italy), and F. Tosco (CentroStudi e Laboratori Telecomunicazioni,CSELT, Turin, Italy), in cooperationwith the International Centre for Scienceand High Technology (ICS, Trieste,Italy) and with the co-sponsorship of theDirezione Generale per la Cooperazione

allo Sviluppo (Ministry of ForeignAffairs, Rome, Italy).

Lectures: CO2 laser. Gas lasers.Optogalvanic spectroscopy. Physics andtechnology of semiconductor lasers.Nonlinear optics. Solid state lasers. Dyelasers. Environmental applications oflasers. Holography. Lasers in medicine.Fibre theory fabrication characterization.Fibre communication systems. Opticalneural networks. Introduction to fibrecommunications. Detectors andreceivers. Lasers for communications.Switching and modulation. Fibrepassive components. Optical amplifiers.Fibres passive components. Solitons inoptical fibres. Industrial lasers.

Introduction to laboratoryexperiments: Bit error rate system.Holography system. Bedding on opticalfibres.


T i t I e : EXPERIMENTALWORKSHOP ON HIGHT E M P E R A T U R E S U P E R -CONDUCTORS AND RELATEDMATERIALS (basic activities), 11February - 1 March.

O r g a n i z e r s : Drs. G. Leising(Technische Universitdt Graz, Austria),F.C. Matacotta (Istituto per latecnologia dei materiali metallici nontradizionali, Milan, Italy) and C. Segre(Illinois Institute of Technology,Chicago, USA), in cooperation with theInternational Centre for Science andHigh Technology (ICS, Trieste, Italy)and with the co-sponsorship of theDirezione Generale per la Cooperazroneallo Sviluppo (Ministry of ForeignAffairs, Rome, Italy), ConsorzioInteruniversitario Nazionale Fisica dellaMateria (INFM, Italy) and theInternational Union for VacuumScience, Technique and Applications(IUVSTA).

L e c t u r e s : Cryostat design.Introduction to HTS theory.Substitutional studies on Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-Osystem. Point contact tunnelling studieson oxide superconductors. Possiblesuperconductivity in LaCa2Co3O" at22'7K. Model of 'weak link' ofinhomogenous media. Temperaturemeasurement and control in the 4-150Krange. Principles of vacuum technology.The magnetic penetration depths in highT" superconductors measured by muonspin rotation technique. Softening of theflux-line structure of La-Sr-Cu-O

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measured by vibrating reed. Thesubstitution of sulphur for oxygen inYBa2C4O7-5. Superconductivity andthe YBa2Cu3O7 structure. Structuralrefinement techniques. Low T. ceramicmaterials. Magnetic flux behaviour inHTS materials. Interfaces betweenYBa2Cu3O7-5 and other materials.

Single particle tunnelling in mono- andpolycrystals based on Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O:Pb. Search for superconductivity insome perovskite related compounds.Radiation effects on high Tc

superconductors. Structural aspects of Biand Tl-based HTS. Chlorineincorporation in La1.gS16.2CuO4-5electrical resistivity. Mechanicalproperties of BISCCO systems. High T6

superconducting 7 2 3 films bysputtering. Optical characterization ofHTS materials. Characterization of HTSmaterials by neutron scatteringtechniques. Large single crystal growthand physical anisotropy ofsuperconducting single crystals of Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O. The rmodyn amica l fluctuationsin high Tc supe rconduc to r s .Fxperimental study of mechanisms ofHTSC: X-ray absorption spectroscopy.M a g n e t i c p r o p e r t i e s ofPb2S12(Y6.3Ca6.7)Cu3Og singlecrystals. Microwave absorptionmeasurements on high Tc

supe rconduc to r s . High T c

superconducting thin films of Bi-Ca-Sr-Cu-O by resistive evaporation method.EPR spectroscopy and microwaveabsorption of HTS materials. Tunneleffect in HTS.

The Workshop was attended by 85lecturers and participants (68 fromdeveloping countries).

Title: WINTER COLLEGE ONULTRAFAST PHENOMENA, 18February - 8 March.

Organizers: Professors C.H. BritoCrtz (Universidade Estadual deCampinas, Unicamp, Brazll), G.Denardo (ICTP), F.-P. Schiifer (Max-Planck-Institut fiir BiophysikalischeChemie, Gdttingen, Germany) and O.Svelto (Politecnico di Milano, Milan,Italy), with the co-sponsorship of theDirezione Generale per la Cooperazioneallo Sviluppo (Ministry of ForeignAffairs, Rome, Italy).

Lectures: Introduction to mode-locked lasers. Pulse compression inoptical fibers. Femtosecond pulseamplification. CPM, Sinc. pumped andRaman shifting. Applications of DFB.USP measurements. DFB lasers.Industrial application of lasers (video).Generation of ultrashort high intensityexcimer laser pulses. Dispersive effectson the duration of fs pulses.Femtosecond pulses amplification andapplications. Parametric amplificationand oscillations of ultra short lightpulses. The femtosecond laser facility inRome. Solid state physics and quantumwells. The femtosecond laser facility inFlorence. The femtosecond laser facilityin Milan. Applications of OPO andOPA in ultrashort spectroscopy.Generation of pico- and femtosecondlight pulses by methods of nonlinearfiber optics. Pico- and femtosecondrelaxation processes in molecules.Picosecond laser pulses in chemistry.Ultrafast processes in photosynthesis.


T i t l e : SECOND ICTP-INFNCOURSE ON BASIC VLSI DESIGNTECHNIQUES, 18 February - 15March.

O r g a n i z e r : Professor A.A.Colavita (ICTP). Dr. Dai Jialin (ICTP)acted as Head of practical exercises.

The Course was organized incollaboration with the Istituto Nazionaledi Fisica Nucleare (INFN, PaduaSection, Italy) and with the InternationalCentre for High Technology and NewMaterials QCTM, Trieste, Italy), withthe co-sponsorship of the UnitedNations University (Tokyo, Japan) andthe Direzione Generale per laCooperazione allo Sviluppo (Ministryof Foreign Affairs, Rome, Italy).

Lectures : Introduction to VLSItechnologies. Introduction to SOLO1400. MOS physics and design. SOLO1400 — requirement for test. CMOSprocessing technology and layout.DRAFT — the schematic editor. Logicand circuit design. SOLO 1400 —model. System design and designmethods. CMOS subsystem design.SOLO 1400 — analogue library. Newapproaches for VLSI. Logic design.SOLO 1400 — generators and layout.SOLO 1400 — MADS the simulator.Algorithmic state machine design.SOLO 1400 — layout. SOLO 1400 —.design acceptance. SOLO 1400 —UNIX. Analogue IC technology anddesign techniques: introduction; basiccircuit components and limitations;design of the building blocks;operational amplifiers — trade-offs andapplications.

The Course was attgnded by 45lecturers and participants (40 fromdeveloping countries).

Second College on theoretical and experimental radiopropagation physics, 7 January - 1 February.

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News fi'om ICTP 1 2 1 3 - Januar.v*/Februarl

Second Training College on physics and technology of lasers and optical fibres, 21 January - l5 February.

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second ICTP-IlttrFN course on basic vLSI design techniques, 18 February -l5 March.

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News from ICTP - NO. 42113 - January/February 1991

Activities at ICTP in 1991

Workshop on mathematical physics and geometry 4 - 1 5 MarchConference on geometry and physics. Edinburgh 1 9 - 2 8 MarchRound Table on scientific brain drain the Third World and in countries of Eastern E u r o p e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5 - 26 MarchICTP-WMO international technical conference on long-range weather forecasting r e s e a r c h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 - 1,2 AprllSpring school and workshop on string theory and quantum gravity 1 5 - 2 6 AprilCourse on "Oceanography of semienclo.sed seas" 15 April - 4 MayFifth workshop on perspectives in nuclear physics at intermediate e n e r g i e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 - 10 MaySpring college in materials science on "Nucleation, growth and segregationin materials science and engineering" 6 May — 7 JuneTrieste Conference on quantum field theory and condensed matter physics 13 - 16 MayThird ICFA school on instrumentation in elementary particle physics 20 — 31 MayStructural and phase stability of alloys (Adriatico Research Conference) 21 - 24 MaySpring school on plasma physics 27 May - 21 JuneSecond school on non-accelerator particle astrophysics 3 - 1 4 JuneWorking party on initiation and growth of cracks in materials 3 - 1 4 JuneWorking party on simulation of materials degradation 3 - 1 4 JunePhysics of inhomogeneous materials (Adriatico Research Conference) 1 1 - 1 4 JuneMiniworkshop on nonlinearity: fractals, pattern formation 11 June - 6 JuJySummer school in high energy physics and cosmology 17 June - 9 AugustResearch workshop in condensed matter, atomic and molecular p h y s i c s . . . . . . 1 7 Jrne — 27 SeptemberInternational conference on complex systems: fractals, spin glasses and neural n e t w o r k s . . . . . . . 2 - 6 JttlyMiniworkshop on strongly correlated electron systems 8 July - 2 AugustOpen problems in strongly interacting electron systems (Adriatico Research C o n f e r e n c e ) . . . . 9 - 12 JuJyCourse on ocean-atmosphere interactions in the T r o p i c s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 9 July * 17 AugustCourse on path integration 1 9 - 3 0 AugustCollege on singularity theory 19 August - 6 SeptemberWorking party on surface phase transitions 2 - 13 SeptemberWorkshop on materials science and physics of non-conventional energy s o u r c e s . . . . . . . . 2 - 20 SeptemberPath integration and its applications (Adriatico Research Conference) 3 - 6 SeptemberSchool on dynamical systems 9 - 27 SeptemberConference on recent developments in the phenomenology of particle p h y s i c s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 - 27 SeptemberWorkshop on soil physics 30 September- 18 OctoberWorkshop on stochastic and deterministic models 7—11 OctoberSecond international workshop on radon monitoring in radioprotection and earth science 7 - 1 8 OctoberCollege on microprocessors-bised real time control — princlples and applications in physics 7 October- 1 NovemberSchool on "IJse of synchrotron radiation in science and t e c h n o l o g y " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 October-8 NovemberWorkshop on composite materials 28 October - 8 NovemberThird workshop on telematics 4 - 2 2 NovemberConference on major problems of the atmospheric system and the developing c o u n t r i e s . . . . . 71 — 16 NovemberWorkshop on "The programme on training and interdisciplinary research in atmospheric p h y s i c s . . . . L8-21 NovemberSchool on materials for electronics: growth, properties, and a p p l i c a t i o n s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8 N o v e m b e r - 6 DecemberWorkshop on non-linear dynamics and earthquake prediction 25 November - 13 December

For information and applications to courses, kindly write to the Scientific Programme Office.

International Centre for Theoretical Physicsof IAEA and UNESCOStrada Costiera, 11,P.O. Box 58634tr36 TriesteItaly

Telephone: (40) 2240ICable: CENTRATOMTelex: 460392 ICTP ITelefax: (40\ 224163

E-mail: POSTOFFICE@ ICTP TRIESTE. ITBitnet: POSTOFF@ ITSICTP

Decnet: VXICP1::POSTOFFICEor 40124::POSTOFFICEPPSDN: 022224110125

EDITORIAL NOTE - News from ICTP is not an official document of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. Its purpose is tokeep scientists informed on past and future activities at the Centre and initiatives in their home countries. Suggestions and criticismsshould be addressed to Dr. M. Faroooue. Scientific Information Officer.

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