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Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati - SISSA
SISSA's and ICTP's long and fruitful relationship is now a quarter century old.
The two neighbouring institutions in Miramare Campus, share a common heritage marked by years of scientific cooperation and exchange that has been made possible by the generosity of the Italian government.
The birth of ICTP in the mid 1960s took place against the backdrop of a chronic international problem: the limited opportunities for study that has plagued scientists from the developing world. SISSA's creation in the late 1970s was a byproduct, in part, of a devastating earthquake that rocked Friuli-Venezia-Giulia in 1976, prompting the Italian government to invest large sums of money in the region as part of the rebuilding effort.
Paolo Budinich championed the creation of both institutions. He worked closely with Abdus Salam in the founding of ICTP, 'retiring' i at the age of 60, and took up SISSA's mantle two years later. Budinich envisioned that the two institutions would complement each other: Both would require vigorous training and commitment; both would emphasise scientific excellence; both would focus primarily on physics and mathematics; and both would share faculty and classroom space to achieve their goals.
SISSA was one of the first institutions in Italy to grant the Ph.D. degree. This title is recognized by Italian universities as equivalent to their Dottorato di Ricerca.
Today, SISSA has a scientific staff consisting of 50 professors and researchers, an administrative staff of 66 permanent positions and 14 temporary positions, and 160 graduate students.
The scientific research at SISSA is organized into sectors including: Astrophysics, Cognitive Neuroscience, Condensed Matter Theory, Elementary Particle Theory, Functional Analysis and Applications, Mathematical Physics, Neurobiology, Statistical and Biological Physics.