New Research Areas

In its new strategic plan, ICTP announced new research areas it will pursue in fields related to existing ones which could have significant interdisciplinary research potential, especially in their possible impact on developing countries. Those fields are:

Energy and Sustainability

Energy is a topic of key importance for developing countries, which have special needs for energy use and production. This new ICTP research area will concentrate on different sources of energy (with a focus on renewable energy) and their impact in the developing world. The area complements current activities of the Earth System Physics and Condensed Matter Physics sections, in particular the latter section's computational modelling of different materials relevant for energy conversion and storage. The hope is that such research could be implemented in collaboration with other local and national institutions.

Computing Sciences

The systematic study of algorithmic processes that create, describe, and transform information and its applications in computing systems is an ever-growing field that somehow now mirrors the role that theoretical physics used to play years ago when ICTP was founded. It has direct impact on society as a whole, and can be implemented in developing countries through improved access to computers via the internet. It is directly related to development and has important financial implications. This activity could be considered as a natural extension of the mathematics group to more applied areas. Expanding the scope of this new group to include quantum computing could also link with current research interests at ICTP and the University of Trieste.

A local cluster of computers would provide a world-class facility for the Centre's scientists and visitors. This will be needed for independent computational resources at ICTP for the existing groups (mostly Condensed Matter and Earth System Physics) and for the proposed new sections mentioned above.

Seminars

No activities at the moment

Activities view all

Europe/Rome 2020-05-25 08:00:00 2020-05-29 22:00:00 Workshop on Physics and Chemistry of Solid/Liquid Interfaces for Energy Conversion and Storage * CANCELLED * | (smr 3447) Note: ICTP has suspended all educational activities from 24 February up to 26 June as precautionary measures due to COVID-19; more details at https://www.ictp.it/about-ictp/media-centre/news/2020/2/ictp_suspend_activities.aspx The purpose of the Workshop is to bring together scientists working on the characterization of electrochemical interfaces at the atomistic level, and developing characterization methods, to discuss developments, current challenges, and perspectives. The workshop is dedicated to the characterization of electrochemical interfaces by means of advanced experimental and theoretical techniques. The focus will be on the understanding at atomic level of interface structure and stability, charge dynamics and charge transfer, chemical adsorption and reactivity. Space will be devoted to advances in interface-sensitive characterization techniques. Consequences of the progress in the field will be discussed in the context of applications to catalysis, energy conversion and storage, and environmental remediation. Topics: • Atomic structure of electrochemical interfaces • Charge dynamics and charge transfer • Electrochemical reactions at interfaces • Interface-sensitive experimental techniques • Computer simulations of electrochemical interfaces Applicants should submit a title and abstract for a poster to be presented at the workshop. Title and abstract of accepted posters will be publicly available. Speakers: A. BIEBERLE-HÜTTER, DIFFER, the Netherlands R. KRAMER CAMPEN, Fritz Haber Institute, Germany K. CHAN, Technical University of Denmark J. CHENG, Xiamen University, China A. COWAN, Liverpool University, UK T. CUK, University of Colorado Boulder, USA J. DURRANT, Imperial College London, UK M.-P. GAIGEOT, University Paris Saclay, France J. GIBBS, University of Alberta, Canada A. GROSS, University of Ulm, Germany M. IANNUZZI, University of Zürich, Switzerland T. E. JONES, Fritz Haber Institute, Germany J. LIBUDA, University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany W. LIU, Fudan University, China N. MARZARI, EPFL, Switzerland A. PASQUARELLO, EPFL, Switzerland D. PRENDERGAST, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA B. ROLDAN CUENYA, Fritz Haber Institute, Germany K. ROSSO, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA R. SCHLÖGL, Fritz Haber Institute, Germany M. SPRIK, University of Cambridge, UK P. STRASSER, TU Berlin, Germany J. TANG, University College London, UK F. M. TOMA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA M. TODOROVA, MPI for Iron Research, Germany R. VAN DE KROL, Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, Germany Grants: A limited number of grants are available to support the attendance of selected participants, with priority given to participants from developing countries. There is no registration fee. ICTP ICTP pio@ictp.it 25 May 2020 - 29 May 2020