ICTP Prize 2022 Ceremony

ICTP will celebrate the two winners of the 2022 ICTP Prize with a ceremony on Wednesday 21 June at 14:00 in the Budinich Lecture Hall. 

The two recipients -- Shant Baghram of the Sharif University of Technology and Mohammad Hossein Namjoo of the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences -- share the Prize for their pioneering contributions to developing robust theoretical, computational and statistical frameworks to compare theoretical predictions for various cosmological and astrophysical phenomena with high-precision observational data. 

Both will give talks on their research during the ceremony, on the following topics:

• Large Scale Structure of the Universe: Beyond the Standard Model of Cosmology, by Shant Baghram: The standard model of cosmology is based on the assumption of the cosmological constant, as the cause of the accelerated expansion of the universe, and cold dark matter, as the main skeleton of the structure in the universe. This model describes almost all observations, from cosmic microwave background radiation to the large-scale distribution of matter. However, the physics of dark matter, dark energy and the early universe are still unknown. In this talk, Baghram will review my recent works on structure formation, non-linear model of Large scale structures such as excursion set theory, one-point statistics and ideas to investigate the dark matter sub-halos, which we develop to study the cosmos in its largest scales up to galactic scale. Also, I will review the extensions we introduced in the dark sector and early universe initial conditions, such as non-local gravity and deviation from scale-invariant initial conditions, as examples of beyond-standard models and their observational consequences.
• Probing the Primordial Universe Using Heavy Particles, by Mohammad Hossein Namjoo: Inflation is the leading paradigm for the origin of our observable universe. However — persuaded by some objections to inflation — several alternatives are also proposed that are so far observationally indistinguishable from inflation. While the theoretical arguments for and against inflation remain debatable, it would be of great value if the ultimate verdict can be based on observations. In this talk, Namjoo will introduce the so-called standard clock as such a possibility. The standard clock is a massive field that is naturally expected to exist at the early stages of the universe and which may have distinct imprints on cosmic fluctuations, as a smoking gun for discriminating inflation from alternatives.

The ceremony is open to all and will be livestreamed on ICTP's YouTube channel.

Baghram’s work on the formation of dark matter substructures and indirect methods for detecting them, observational signatures of primordial non-Gaussianity and modifications of gravity are of particular relevance in view of several ongoing and near-future, large-scale structure surveys. Baghram has also distinguished himself by his unceasing and unparalleled efforts to help the flourishing of physics and young physicists in Iran during these extremely complicated times. He was an ICTP Junior Associate from 2017 to 2022.

Namjoo’s investigations have ranged from the very-early universe, including features of the cosmic microwave background radiation, to the challenges of dark matter and large-scale structure formation. His research on effective field theories for quantifying systematic corrections to the nonrelativistic limit of theories of massive fields has helped to identify novel features of deep physical interest as well as establishing a computationally efficient means with which to compare predictions with empirical data. Namjoo is an ICTP Regular Associate.

The ICTP Prize was created in 1982. It recognises young scientists from developing countries who work and live in those countries and who have made outstanding and original contributions to physics. For further details, see the ICTP Prize webpage.

Each year, the ICTP Prize is given in honour of a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field in which the prize is given. This year’s ICTP Prize is in honour of Russian physicist Valery Rubakov for his fundamental contributions at the interface of particle physics and cosmology.