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Emerging From the Shadow
Of Abdus Salam
Once a scientific oasis during the Cold War, a unique center for theoretical physics and its
scientific neighbors in Trieste want to honor after his death in 1996. Salam remains a
formidable presence. His former office is
something of a shrine: Bookshelves are
glassed in to keep the volumes as he left them,
while other glass cases preserve his walking
sticks, prayer mat, and scores of awards and
honors from across the globe. "Salam became
update their missions for today's political climate a demigod," says Sreenivasan. "He cared for
what he was doing. But he has made it difficult
TRIESTE, ITALY-Arbab Ibrahim Arbab had took over as ICTP director last month and is for his successors."
reached a dead end. He'd earned a bachelor's cautiously exploring ways to reinvigorate it. Despite the U.N. badge, 85% of ICTP's
degree at the University of Khartoum, Sudan,
$22.5 million annual budget comes from the
in the early 1990s but was unable to continue Einstein's dream
Italian government. Italy views the center as
his studies in astrophysics. "There is hardly After World War II, several prominent physi- an important foreign policy tool and, in 1983,
any money for research in Sudan," he ex- cists, including Albert Einstein, Robert was happy to add the International Centre for
plains. Then one of his former professors sug- Oppenheimer, and Niels Bohr, floated the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
gested that he apply for a new diploma course idea of a physics institute under a U.N. flag (ICGEB) and the Third World Academy
at the United Nations-backed Abdus Salam where researchers from across the globe of Sciences to the Trieste roster. The
International Centre for Theoretical
International Centre for Science
Physics (ICTP) in Trieste.
and High Technology was estab-
He got in but was in for a
lished in 1988 and, 3 years ago,
shock. "From the first moment, I
the InterAcademy Panel, a nethad
to do lots of very new stuff,"
work of 80 national science acade-
Arbab says. Taking open-book ex-
mies, took up residence.
ams and defending his views in
seminars were a far cry from the
A grander role
rote learning in
Some think that the Trieste System
Khartoum. But
should capitalize on this drawing
Arbab considers
power and seek official status as a
his time in Trieste
U.N. field office devoted to proas
a lucky break.
moting science in the developing
"We had the best
world. Budinich, in particular, is
teachers from all
pushing hard for a grander U.N.
over the world," he
role for the Trieste System, seeing
says, and the
it as the fulfillment of Salam's
friends he made in
Melting pot. New director Katepalli Sreenivas< an wants dream. Others are equivocal.
this academic bas-
ICTP to remain a refuge for researchers away from the "Recognition by the U.N. or the
tion in northeast-
divisions of world politics.
E.U. is something we strive for,"
ern Italy helped
says ICGEB director Arturo
him on his path to
could work free of military interference. Falaschi, "but we do not yet have the critical
a faculty position
The idea went nowhere until the early mass." Sreenivasan has other doubts. "It's a
in Saudi Arabia.
1960s, when celebrated Pakistani physicist slippery slope. I don't know where we'd end
Arbab's experi-
Abdus Salam made a formal proposal to up," he says. "I would like us to be lean and
ence resonates across the developing world. the International Atomic Energy Agency. mean, not grow too much, and stay effective."
For the past 4 decades, ICTP has played host Salam mobilized developing countries to Sreenivasan, who was director of the
to more than 80,000 visits from Third World support the center concept, which at first was Institute for Physical Science and Technology
physicists who have immersed themselves in opposed by big U.N. players wary of losing at the University of Maryland, College Park,
the center's intellectual melting pot. Its open- top talent. After 3 years of wrangling, it was before coming to Trieste, is feeling his way on
door policy made it one of the few venues for "a rare case of the poor winning against the how to achieve those goals. One possibility
Soviet and U.S. physicists to meet during the rich," says Paolo Budinich, then head of is to create affiliated centers in countries such
Cold War. Nowadays, Indians and Pakistanis physics at the University of Trieste. In 1964, as India, Brazil, and South Korea whose
sip espressos together while Iranians and at Budinich's suggestion, the center was sited physicists profited greatly from the ICTP ex-
Libyans rub shoulders with Americans. This in Trieste, which at the southern end of the perience and could now support colleagues in
0
cosmopolitan spirit inspired the creation of Iron Curtain seemed symbolically ideal. poorer neighboring countries. He also hopes
v,
other science centers in Trieste that have Embraced by the V)
physics community, ICTP to tap such transitional countries for financial
0n turned the city into a kind of scientific quickly established itself as a first-class re- contributions that could build up a reserve for
Shangri-la. Together, these institutions refer to search and training center where dozens of expansion or new programs.
themselves as the Trieste System.
Nobel laureates came to teach. It received a The one thing that Sreenivasan does not
But some fear that the missionary zeal that further boost when founding director Salam want to see is an erosion of ICTP's unique
established and nourishes this utopia may be shared a Nobel Prize in 1979 with Sheldon role as a scientific crossroads, a u
meeting
fading. Many of the leading lights of ICTP's Glashow and Steven Weinberg for the unifica- place for researchers separated by politics.
il.
early years are retiring, and the "new people tion of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear "So many people think ICTP belongs to
don't have the same fervor," says Katepalli force. For 30 years, Salam's inspiring personal- them. I don't want to fail them."
u Sreenivasan, an Indian-born physicist who ity dominated ICTP, which was renamed in his
-DANIEL CLERY
www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 300 11 APRIL 2003
241