ICTP's 2023 Scientific Calendar

ICTP's Scientific Calendar activities --  an annual offering of conferences, workshops and schools held at its Trieste campus as well as throughout the developing world -- provide an international forum of knowledge exchange and collaboration opportunities for researchers from around the world. The activities attract renowned scientists as lecturers, including a large number of Nobel Laureates and Fields Medallists. Participants gain access to a network of some of the top scientists in their fields, and are exposed to the latest advances and techniques in physics and mathematics.

Want to attend an ICTP activity? Browse the rich offerings of the online Scientific Calendar or download the PDF at the link below.

Many of the Scientific Calendar activities based in Trieste are available for viewing online, on ICTP's YouTube channel.

Each ICTP research section organises several activities every year, with ICTP scientists planning high level events that often act as collectors of the best minds in each field.

ICTP's Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics (CMSP) section has presented for 2023 a rich array of activities at the forefront of contemporary fields of research, from quantum information and computation to material science.

"Two of the events organised by our section are perfect examples of ICTP's vocation towards education and outreach, which are the common goals of all of our activities," says Rosario Fazio, Head of the CMSP section. "The 'School on Quantum Many-Body Phenomena out of Equilibrium: from Chaos to Criticality' and the 'Conference and Advanced School on Low-Dimensional Quantum Systems', which will take place in Chile." The section also organised other activities outside ICTP, such as the 'Summer School on New Trends in Modern Quantum Science: from Novel Functional Materials to Quantum Technologies' in Uzbekistan and an online 'Conference on the Middle East Material Science'. "These activities really show the contribution of ICTP to international collaborations between scientific institutions in different areas of the world," says Fazio.

The Earth System Physics (ESP) section enriches ICTP's 2023 Scientific Calendar with a series of activities covering several themes, from extreme climate, to cloud science, to earthquakes.

"The 'International Conference on Regional Climate ICRC-CORDEX 2023' is a very important international conference that attracts hundreds of scientists coming from all over the world, working in the field of regional climate modelling" says Filippo Giorgi, Head of the ESP section. This conference is organised every three years and is now at its 5th edition, taking place from 25 to 29 September 2023. "This conference was launched in 2011 in Trieste and then travelled to different parts of the world - Brussels, Stockholm and Beijing. We are very happy to host it again for the second time at our Trieste campus this year. These kinds of events are crucial for scientist working in this field, especially from developing countries, to coordinate and network with colleagues."

Other important activities include: a workshop organised jointly with the IAEA on the connection between climate and diseases spread by insects; a workshop on risk assessment for climate hazards; a summer school on modeling of climate dynamics; a workshop on cloud organisation and precipitation extremes; and a workshop on the mechanics of earthquakes. The ESP section will also organise some activities in Africa, namely in Harare, Zimbabwe and in Kigali, Rwanda, in collaboration with ICTP’s partner institute the East African Institute of Fundamental Research (EAIFR).

Kigali, Rwanda will be the destination of another activity organised by ICTP's High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (HECAP) section. "The conference 'DSU2023 (The Dark Side of the Universe)' is an international workshop in the field of cosmology and astroparticle physics, and this is the first time that a conference of this level takes place in Central Africa," says Paolo Creminelli, Head of the HECAP section.

The HECAP offering of scientific activities also includes activities on crucial topics investigated by the section, involving high-level international speakers: a spring school on superstring theory, a summer school on particle physics, a winter school on cosmology taking place in Argentina, and a 'School and Workshop on String Theory, Holography and Black Holes'.

"Another interesting activity is the 'Huddle on Entanglement, Black Holes and Spacetime', because it has a rather innovative and original format," says Creminelli. "It is a sort of restricted working group that brings together scientists from different levels of expertise and different backgrounds to work together on a selected topic and foster research and collaboration."

The Mathematics (MATH) section is also looking outside of the ICTP campus to contribute to the Centre's mission of fostering knowledge sharing and scientific development for all. An example is the 'Summer School on Differential Geometry' that will take place from 14 to 25 August 2023 in Hanoi, Viet Nam, at the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (VIASM), an institution directed by Ngo Bao Chau, Field Medallist and a frequent visitor at ICTP. "The collaboration with VIASM and other local Vietnamese universities has been growing significantly in the past few years," says Claudio Arezzo, Head of the MATH section. "Every year we manage to organise high level activities with top quality speakers, and this year it will be no exception."

Another interesting activity is taking place in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. The '2023 EAUMP-ICTP School on Enumerative Combinatorics, in Collaboration with AMU, CIMPA and ISP' is co-sponsored by the East Africa Universities Mathematics Programme (EAUMP), a strong network of institutions in the African continent. 

In Trieste, the MATH section will hold several additional activities, including the 'School on Commutative Algebra and Algebraic Geometry in Prime Characteristics', to be held from 2 to 5 May, and the 'School on Wave Dynamics: Turbulent vs Integrable Effects', taking place from 28 August to 1 September.

The activities organised by ICTP's Quantitative Life Sciences (QLS) section mirror the richness and variety of themes investigated by its researchers. QLS Scientific Calendar offerings include an 'Advanced School on Quantitative Principles in Microbial Physiology: from Single Cells to Cell Communities', a 'Workshop on Signatures of Nonequilibrium Fluctuations in Life', and 'Youth in High-Dimensions: Recent Progress in Machine Learning, High-Dimensional Statistics and Inference', a conference on machine learning specifically targeted at young researchers.

"Another interesting activity is the 'Spring College on the Physics of Complex Systems'," says Antonio Celani, Head of the QLS section. "This is a unique opportunity especially for students from developing countries to engage in courses held by leading figures in the application of theoretical and statistical physics to a broad range of disciplines, ranging from physics to biology, neuroscience, economics and machine learning. Moreover, the 'Workshop on Inequality Across Scales, Space, Time and Domains' aims at promoting the science of inequality by connecting empirical results and complex systems modelling approaches."

Last but not least, ICTP's Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) unit has organised for 2023 a series of schools and workshops at ICTP and abroad on the most advanced and current topics in science and technology, such as Machine Learning, scientific instrumentation, and connectivity and space weather. Some examples are a 'Joint ICTP-IAEA School on Systems-on-Chip Based on FPGA for Scientific Instrumentation and Reconfigurable Computing', a 'Workshop on Communication in Extreme Environments for Science and Sustainable Development', and a 'ICTP-SCOSTEP-ISWI School and Workshop on the Predictability of the Solar-Terrestrial Coupling - PRESTO'.

"Moreover, we are very happy to announce that this year the 'Maker Faire Trieste', an activity organised by our section, will celebrate its 10th anniversary," says Marco Zennaro, Head of the STI section. "The Maker Faire is a free gathering of engineers, scientists and any creative people who desire to openly share their experiments and projects with the public and with fellow makers in a family-friendly showcase of invention. The event attracts every year thousands of people to Trieste and we expect this year for it to be as fun and successful as it has been in the past ten years."

To participate in ICTP's scientific activities, visit http://www.ictp.it/scientific-calendar.aspx and browse through the rich calendar of schools, workshop and conferences. If you find an activity you are interested in, complete the application form and apply online.