1 Association with the Abdus Salam ICTP
The first contact with the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in
Trieste (ICTP, now bearing the name of its Founding Director the Nobel
Laureate, Abdus Salam) took place during the inauguration of its
Miramare Campus and at the Contemporary Physics Trieste Symposium
(June, 1968). Sharing the same lecture hall (now called the Budinich
Lecture Hall) with so many distinguished scientists was an enormous
boost for his professional career. At the same time he accepted the invitation of the Director General of IAEA
(the International Atomic Energy Agency) to participate at the
dedication ceremony of the new premises on Sunday, 9 June 1968, now
called the "Leonardo Building".
Our
perseverence as a UNESCO and IAEA Centre have been recognised during
the 50th Anniversary celebrations with the Barcola Prize as well as
with an Honorary Citizenship of the host city of Trieste.
Interacting
with both founding members, Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam (Caracas,
January 1980) and Paolo Budinich (Bogota, January 1981) were
significant moments in promoting science, not only worldwide, but
especially in Latin America.
These two events were stepping
stones for perennial collaboration with the progress of research and
development, especially in the emerging nations: IAEA Fellow 1971, and
on several occasions Associate Member (1972-1981) and Visiting
Scientist (1982-1990). From 1990-2014 he was scientist in residence at
the ICTP: Scientific Consultant (1990-1996) and Staff Associate
(1996-2014). He now continues his research as Visiting Scientist at the
ICTP. During the 50th anniversary celebrations it was possible to make
contact with remarkable scientists that have benefitted from the ICTP
(R. Meidani, expresident of the Republic of Albania, on the left).
2 The significance of the ICTP in my academic career
The
first two decades of my academic participation in the activities of the
ICTP go from June 1968 till July 1988. The first one was as a regular
participant to the Symposium of Contemporary Physics, even though I was
a graduate student at the University of London. The final visit was as
a visit in my condition of a Senior Associate Member.
Those 20 years served to reinforce my research at IVIC, where I raised
from an Associate Researcher to a Full Associate Researcher in 1977.
After moving to USB I gained my Professorship until my retirement in
July 1990.My continued association with the ICTP led to much improved
performance in my home institutes, not only in research, but especially
in administration of science. At IVIC I participated in the first
Committee for granting Doctorates in Venezuela at IVIC, while at USB I
was Dean of Research for the whole university for a period of 6 years.
These contributions to my homeland led to the reward of an early
pension in July 1990. At that time Abdus Salam welcomed me at the ICTP
as a Visiting Scientist with administrative duties of coordination the
biophysics oriented work of the visiting scientists from the emerging
nations. I held that duty till July 2014 when the work was reorganized
at the Centre. But at the research level I helped Abdus Salam at two
different levels: firstly with his effort to make an innovative
contribution to astrobiology (Gordon Fraser, 2008, Chapter 13;
Salam 1991, The Role of Chirality in the Origin of Life,Journal of
Molecular Evolution 33(2):105-113 Chela-Flores 1992),
and secondly to his forward-looking insertion of astrobiology itself at
the ICTP. This was done in collaboration with the astrobiology pioneer
Cyril Ponnamperuma, which was continued after Cyril passing away by the
distinguished planetologist-astrobiologists Francois Raulin
and Tobias Owen. I coordinated and co-directed astrobiolgy at the ICTP
fo a period of 11 years. Since August 2014 I have continued my research
in astrobiology as a Visiting Scientist.
3 The significance of Astrobiology for the progress of the R.B. Venezuela
At
present recent efforts have placed our nation at the threshold of the
space sciences, both at the technological and scientific levels. Modest
at present, though significant enough, we have placed two satellites in
low terrestrial orbit. Venesat-1 known as Simón Bolívar, was the first
Venezuelan satellite. VRSS-1 (Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite) was
the second Venezuelan satellite (a remote sensing one).
We feel
that it is relevant for the Venezuelan destiny in space. The Bolivarian
Agency for Space Activities (Agencia Bolivariana para Actividades
Espaciales, (ABAE) is an agency of Venezuela responsible for the
policies regarding the pacific use of the outer space. We join the rest
of indusstrialized countries to wit, USA, the European Union, Russia,
Japan, China and India, as well as other emerging nations.
The
ICTP has persevered with Abdus Salam's dream of inserting astrobiology
into our UNESCO Center. We have followed his footsteps slowly but
without pause as mentioned above with the decade long series of
conferences on astrobiology both in Trieste (1992-2003) and in Caracas
(1999 at our Fundacion Instituto de Estudios Avanzados, IDEA).
Surrounded by the most stimulating environment of he Miramare Campus of
the ICTP, we have succeeded to advise, alas not ABAE, but rather the
European Space Agncy (ESA). In fact, ESA has approved funds for a
mission to the Jupiter System, launching expected in the early 2020s.
The approved space load includes miniaturised instrumentation by Swiss
engineers of the University of Bern. This group with the full ESA
support has taken into account an ICTP proposal by Narendra Kumar, the
late ex-Director of the Raman Institute in Bangalore and the author (Chela-Flores and Kumar, 2008 Returning to Europa: Can traces of surficial life be detected? International Journal of Astrobiology 7, 263-269).
More exciting still, is the new thinking discussed in
an Astrobiology Forum (Chela-Flores, 2017, Instrumentation for testing
whether the icy moons of the gas and ice giants are inhabited. Forum
Article, Astrobiology Journal, 17, 958 - 961). Here we discuss an early
contact with signatures of life beyond the Earth, which our colleague
and distinguisshed NASA astrobiologist, Christopher P. McKay, has
suggestively called a "second genesis" in our Sixth Trieste Conference
(The First Steps of Life in the Universe. Trieste, Italy, 2000.
Co-Directors: J. Chela-Flores, Tobias Owen and François Raulin. Kluwer
Academic Publishers, 2001: Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
4. ICTP for the progress of women scientists and the human aspects of science
I
have been a scientist in residence for almost three decades, after
completing my academic career in Caracas at the Simon Bolivar
University. I would like to end this account of my Association with the
Abdus Salam ICTP by bringing out two aspects that are not extensively
known, or appreciated. Firstly, just by looking at the role played by
the ICTP on a single nation, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, out
of well over one hundred other countries at the UN, during my
association with ICTP, one thousand scientists, including myself have
improved their careers by coming to our marvellous Miramare Campus. But
what is really most remarkable is that during the same time of my
association, I must underline with pride and joy, one hundred
Venezuelan women scientists and technologists have equally benefitted
from the ICTP.
I remember without offence even a nickname assigned to me by one of
these women scientists, she called me “little ambassador” to
acknowledge the fact of finding a point of referenc by a con-national
that offered orientation by someone that knew the environment very
well. That care has been extended far and wide. One young Nigeian
scientist after returning to his home country wrote a message to me
thanking for guidande, “I am grateful to you for your kind,
fatherly guidance as Scientific Coordinator during those visits. God
bless you.”
I am not unusual amongst the scientists in residence, being
qualified scientists from the emerging nations we make visitors feel
more at home.Indeed, this demonstrates that the family of the ICTP,
this wonderful miracle on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, is much more
that a convention centre, though it is an excellent one, or a place
wher research goes on, even though it has been traditionally of the
highest international standards.