Office of External Activities

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ICTP Office of External Activities

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) was set up in 1964 to provide scientists from developing countries with opportunities to conduct research and to study new developments in physics and mathematics. The scope of activities has since been widened to include applied and related fields of science.

Thanks to generous funding from the Italian Government, the ICTP has been able to initiate and implement various schemes of support and assistance to scientific activities taking place in developing countries. The Office of External Activities was established in 1986.

The OEA seeks to promote scientific cooperation in the South through its support of scientific meetings, networks, affiliated centres and visiting scholars. OEA activities are initiated by scientists and scientific institutions in the developing world and carried out at sites located within the region. The purpose of OEA Programmes are

To initiate, stimulate or make applicable research and training in the fields of physics and/or mathematics related to locally available resources or local problems of specific relevance to the development of the region.
To form and strengthen national/regional communities and research groups by supporting institutions or national societies for physicists and mathematicians at all levels.
To enhance physics and mathematics teaching.

Since 1990, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) has contributed substantially towards the External Activities Programme in Africa.

The OEA Office has been headed by:

1985-1988:

Jan S. Nilsson, professor of theoretical physics, Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Attended the first workshop at Miramare, Trieste, preceeding the founding of ICTP in 1960, as well as the first summer schools at the new Centre.

1988-1997:

Gallieno Denardo, born in Italy, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Trieste. He worked on general relativity and on optics and lasers physics. Denardo, had been associated with ICTP since the Centre's inception until 2007. He had served as long-time head of the Office of External Activities and as a Consultant of the Office. From July 2002 to October 2003 he was appointed temporary Administrative Director of ICTP. He was the co-ordinator of the optics and laser programmes at ICTP up to July 2007.

1998-2004:

Faheem Hussain, born in Pakistan, former staff scientist from ICTP's High Energy and Astroparticle Physics Section. He also acted as co-ordinator of the ICTP High Energy Diploma Course.

2004:

George Thompson, born in Australia, staff scientist from ICTP's High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Section.