UN event spotlights ICTP's role in expanding quantum science and training for developing countries

The United Nations and UNESCO on Oct. 26 convened a high-level event marking the 60th anniversary of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and underscoring ICTP’s role in expanding access to quantum science and related training.

The meeting opened with remarks highlighting ICTP’s founding mission to “democratize science.” Professor Duncan Haldane, 2016 Nobel laureate in physics and Sherman Fairchild Professor of Physics at Princeton University, quoted ICTP’s founder Abdus Salam: “scientific thought and its creation is the common and shared heritage of mankind,” and argued that basic science nurtures the local scientific cultures that underpin later technological advances.

The event’s nut graf: speakers from UNESCO, ICTP, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), philanthropy and academia described concrete steps — training, fellowships, international partnerships and philanthropic support — intended to broaden participation in quantum science, with a particular focus on scientists from developing countries and Africa.

Panelists laid out current activity and planned expansions. Dr. Aditi Brito, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO, said UNESCO is leading the International Year of Quantum…