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The ICTP Experience: Diploma and STEP Students The ICTP Experience: Diploma and STEP Students Copyright © 2007 by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Condition of use: All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission or without the acknowledgment of the source. A single copy can be saved or printed for personal use only. The copyright notice and disclaimer must not be removed from the document. The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics THE ICTP EXPERIENCE: DIPLOMA A N STUDENTS STEP D copyright © ICTP TRIESTE ITALY 2007 THE ICTP EXPERIENCE: DIPLOMA AND STEP STUDENTS copyright © ICTP THE ICTP EXPERIENCE: DIPLOMA AND STEP STUDENTS - First edition Copyright © 2007 by The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) ICTP has the irrevocable and indefinite authorization to reproduce and disseminate this publication, in printed and/or computer readable form. ISBN 92-95003-33-0 Printed in Trieste by The ICTP Publications & Printing Section copyright © ICTP The ICTP experience: DIPLOMA and STEP students PREFACE Among the projects on capacity building that ICTP has undertaken over time is the so-called Diploma Program. The Program, begun in 1991, consists of a rigorous, one- year long, pre-doctoral course work, with a small part devoted to independent projects. The Program initially had three streams: High Energy Physics, Condensed Matter Physics and Mathematics. We have recently added a new stream on Earth System Physics and will be starting in the Fall of 2007 an additional Program in Basic Physics without specialization. Our goal in these programs is to take good students from the least developed countries generally – and for the Basic Physics Program students from only sub-Saharan Africa – and educate them so they can compete favorably for graduate studies in any centre of learning in the world. I should note that ICTP is not permitted to offer degrees formally, and the students that we prepare cannot continue for Ph.D. at ICTP. In this sense, like much else that ICTP does, there is a strong element of altruism built into the Program. We have learnt by experience that this task is both rewarding and challenging. It is challenging because the students generally come to the Diploma Program with several handicaps. Almost none of them has been taught by an active researcher at any time previously; the standards of course work in many of the places from which they come are not up to the mark; the students have often not absorbed or understood deeply what they have studied; some of them have language difficulties and have never faced an audience. It is thus clear that their experience and accomplishment at this stage would not earn them admission into a serious Ph.D. Program. Yet the students are bright and capable of hard work in the right environment. To transform students who are essentially “green” to competitive researchers, primarily through their own efforts under the watchful eyes and gentle guiding hands, is the part that is highly rewarding. Some statistics follow. Since inception in 1991, the Diploma Program has “graduated” some 450 students, roughly 20% of whom are female. About 43% have returned home and begun teaching in colleges and The Abduscopyright Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics © ICTPi The ICTP experience: DIPLOMA and STEP students schools, and joined other avenues of workforce; about 41% have earned their Ph.D. degrees (15% from the US, 16% from Western Europe, and 10% from elsewhere); some 16% of the students have lost contact with us. The geographic distribution of students admitted is: Africa, 38%; Asia, 41%; Latin America 15%; Eastern Europe 4%; Oceania 2%. Some students have earned their Ph.D. degrees at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Princeton and Oxford; most others in various respectable research universities. We at ICTP are uniformly proud of their success. What is more, as you will see momentarily, the students are proud of their association with ICTP. ICTP has invented another mechanism to support graduate work. This is the so-called SANDWICH Program. Here, a student registered for a Ph.D. in a University or Program in a developing country is chosen for three visits to ICTP for a total of about 18 months (this being somewhat flexible), having usually a co-advisor in ICTP or an ICTP-affiliated institution. The students receive their Ph.D. from their home institutions. The hope is that this mechanism will keep the students at their home universities, yet allow them access to international community and first- class research facilities through ICTP. This relatively new program, started in 2002, has about 70 students currently registered in it. Already, 16 students (10 from Africa, 3 from Asia and 3 from Eastern Europe, 5 being female) have graduated, and more will soon follow. This is the place to thank our parent organizations, IAEA and UNESCO, which have evinced keen interest in this Program. The IAEA has been promoting the idea in domains of interest to its own programs, while the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, was personally responsible for procuring the support of the Mori Foundation for fellowships to African students from the sub-Saharan region. I should point out one important feature of both these programs: they are labor intensive. One has to pay individual attention to the students, without which the results will at best be indifferent. This is one reason why we admit a relatively small number of students each year in the Diploma Program (30 in the past, 50 from 2007 onwards), and have only 70 students in the SANDWICH Program. This is more or less the limit to our capacity presently. In addition to the scientists of ICTP involved in teaching and guiding them, also taking part are the faculties from SISSA, the University of Trieste, as well as members of other research institutions nearby. I am struck by their enthusiasm and dedication, and thank them for their efforts. The essays in front of you are written by the Diploma students (about 125 responded to my request), and the SANDWICH students (about 25 ii copyrightThe Abdus Salam International © Centre for ICTPTheoretical Physics The ICTP experience: DIPLOMA and STEP students responded). The response rate is not unreasonable, considering how connections become exponentially weaker in time. These articles clearly show how enormously successful these students have been, and how strongly they feel that ICTP was behind that success. Their gratitude is strong because they realize that ICTP was the necessary stepping stone for their success. You will see many mentors mentioned by name. I am at once proud, pleased and grateful for it all. I can only hope that the successful students don’t forget ICTP’s philosophy, which is to share one’s good fortunes with those less well endowed. I should now like to ask, despite the vivid documentation of success in front of you, whether ICTP has achieved its goal through these Programs. Recall that our goal is to increase the number of scientifically qualified people in the poorer segments of the world, so there is enough capacity to make sensible decisions with respect to education, research, resource utilization, and general economic development of peoples in their countries. If more than half the Diploma students have built careers – albeit successfully – outside of their home countries, have we not aided the very brain drain which we have been trying to alleviate? First, let’s look at the alternative. As you will see from the essays below, most of the students would have not made it to a graduate school without the Diploma Program; putting into the orbit of science some competent students who would otherwise not have reached it is, in itself, a laudable effort. Second, as is also clear from the essays, most of the students have inculcated a certain sense of altruism while they studied at ICTP, and are eager to be part of its enterprise. I am certain that, as they become increasingly successful, the students will get better connected to the countries they left behind. This can be extremely beneficial. Third, nearly half the students have indeed ended up teaching in their colleges and schools. As the world bills itself as the habitat for knowledge-based societies, the greatest shortage is for people who will educate the youth. What is more worthwhile today than teaching young people to make something out of their raw talent? There are several ways in which we can improve the Diploma Program. The first of them is, obviously, to assign to each student a faculty mentor immediately after the student arrives at ICTP. This will enable the progress of each student to be monitored more carefully. The second is to make better use of the multimedia presentations, so the students have the opportunity to review their lessons in precisely the environment in which the lectures were delivered. Once the multimedia efforts are under way, there is no reason why the resulting material cannot be distributed to other needy places as supplementary material for teachers. Our Science Dissemination Unit has already made substantial progress in this direction. The Abduscopyright Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics © ICTPiii The ICTP experience: DIPLOMA and STEP students Accommodations for the Diploma students have always been a bit of a problem, and need attention. It is my hope that you, the reader, will feel as inspired by the essays to follow as I was, and engage yourself in the enormous task of raising the number and quality of scientifically qualified people in developing countries. I keep saying that science is an enterprise that should hold humanity together, not split us apart.
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