A few years ago, physicist Abdus Salam, Nobel laureate and founder of the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, suggested that a sister institute to ICTP be founded in the Western Hemisphere. Leave it to physicists frorr Texas to lasso the idea and rope it in. “Other places a couple of years back expressed some interest,” explains David Ernst, a physicist at Texas A&M. “We took the idea and tried to do something.” In September, Ernst and his colleague Richard Arnowitt, head of the physics department, met with Salam and several other scientists from the U.S. and Latin America to begin structuring the International Institute for Theoretical Physics. So far the IITP has a home: Texas A&M—and some initial research programs: basic physics related to the superconducting supercollider to be built in Waxahachie, Texas (The Scientist, Oct. 2, 1 989 page 1), materials science, and high-temperature superconductivity. Other...
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
