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The Trieste System
When Abdus Salam presided over the Centre's inaugural workshop, the International Seminar on Plasma Physics, on 5 October 1964, it marked the successful end to a non-stop four-year journey characterised by intense personal commitment and resolve.
During this period, Salam had spent much of his time in the bureaucratic maze of international organisations trying to persuade those with the power and purse strings to create a global centre for theoretical physicists and mathematicians from the developing world.
At a time when most diplomats and international civil servants set their sites on East-West relations, Salam focussed on what was then an obscure notion: a potential North-South axis in science. His ability to get others to listen--and then act--served as a remarkable testimony both to his persuasiveness and persistence.
Forty years later, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is a shining example of the enduring value derived from international scientific cooperation in a troubled world. ICTP, in effect, has become a lasting reflection of Salam's vision.
Vision and persistence have been at the heart of the Centre's experience for the past four
decades and represent the most enduring legacy that Abdus Salam has given to the institution
that now bears his name.
More than 4000 scientists currently visit the Centre each year attending 40-plus conferences,
workshops and seminars in a wide variety of fields related to physics and mathematics.
The Centre's pioneering efforts to forge strategies for the uplift of science in the South--its associateship scheme, diploma course, affiliated centres (through the Office of External Activities), the Training and Research in Italian Laboratories (TRIL) programme, and long-standing efforts to provide access to scientific literature in the South (culminating with the creation of the eJournal Delivery Service in 2001) have blazed a path for scientific capacity building that other institutions and nations throughout the world have sought to follow.
Equally important, ICTP created a nurturing environment for the development of a constellation of institutions in Trieste, each of which is dedicated, in part, to the promotion of science and technology in the developing world. These institutions include the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), the Third World Network of Scientific Organizations (TWNSO), the Third World Organization for Women in Science (TWOWS), the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), the International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS), the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), the Synchrotron Light Laboratory Elettra, and the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP).
Collectively, this institutional constellation has given rise to the "Trieste System", a name that is gaining increasing resonance across the world as a symbol of global science. The city of Trieste itself has become a crossroads for the exchange of science--both North and South, East and West. The Italian government's willingness to generously support each of Trieste's scientific enterprises reflects the government's own vision--and willingness--to turn Abdus Salam's vision into a reality.