New York, May 9, 2025:
The 60th anniversary of the ICTP center in Trieste was celebrated at the United Nations with UNESCO and the Nobel Prize in Physics Duncan Haldane. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations co-organized with UNESCO an event at the UN Headquarters entitled “Promoting Global Scientific Cooperation for Sustainable Development: Harnessing Quantum Science for a Resilient Future”. The event was also part of the celebratory calendar of the 70th anniversary of Italy’s admission to the United Nations. The event also included a lectio magistralis by the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics and professor at Princeton University, Duncan Haldane, and speeches by the Minister of Education of Lesotho Ntoi Rapapa (a former student of ICTP), by the UNESCO Deputy Director General for Natural Sciences Lidia Arthur Brito, by the Italian astrophysicist Simonetta Di Pippo, and by several young African scientists who studied at ICTP and are now at the top of technology companies or prestigious academic institutions in the United States (such as Estelle Inack, co-founder and CTO of YiyaniQ and researcher at the Perimeter Institute).
“In its 60 years in place, ICTP has become an essential hub for the world’s most brilliant physicists and scientists, particularly from developing countries. The center in Trieste is an emblem of Italy’s focus on collaborations with African partners, and at the same time of the commitment to putting science at the service of sustainable development goals, as the Pact for the Future adopted by world leaders last September also prompts us to do,” Ambassador Maurizio Massari emphasized at the opening of the event. “The research carried out at ICTP has not only contributed to innovative solutions for the fight against climate change, but has also fostered an international dialogue that did not previously exist in this sector. We are proud that Africa has been the protagonist of this network of collaboration and exchanges that started in Italy. For this reason, we see the center as an exceptional instrument of scientific diplomacy at the service of humanity.”
The center is operated jointly by UNESCO and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in collaboration with the Italian government, which is its main funder. Since its foundation,the ICTP has trained over 160,000 scientists from all over the world, also providing research opportunities in different areas of basic and applied sciences. Every year, about 1,000 African scientists take part in ICTP programs. The event also has shined a light on the role of Trieste as a crossroads of cultures and languages and as a bridge between the North and the South of the planet, decisively contributing to the development of the ICTP.
The event at the United Nations included a focus on quantum sciences and their contribution to environmental and sustainable development solutions, considering that 2025 has been designated by the UN General Assembly as the “International Year of Quantum Science and Technology”. In 2024, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the beginning of the International Decade of Science for Sustainable Development 2024-2033.
Thanks to the official sponsors of Italy’s 70th anniversary at the United Nations: Consorzio Tutela Vini Sannio, Eataly, Enel, Eni, Etica SGR, Ferrero, Generali, Intesa SanPaolo, Italgas, Illy, Snam, La Milanesa.
