 is open. Okay, should we start? Very good. Okay. So welcome to everybody. This is a special event. So we have now a tradition to have every year to combine two important events from ICTP in one single celebration of what ICTP means. And I think it's a beautiful way to combine different generations with one single mission, which is what we do here to support science and scientists in developing countries. And so as you know, we have today the two events is the celebration of the award of the Spirit of Salam award that the Salam family has been kindly offered already for five years. And on top of that we have the graduation ceremony for the diploma students. So it is besides that every year is a special event. Today is even more special for several reasons. One of course the Salam family came very well represented, I would say. And we have Ahmed and the rest of the six of members of the family who are here, which are very pleased to have you here. Second of course the awardees, we have Professor Radechel and the members of the library who are all sitting here, which are very good. And of course the students. We're missing Professor Pallis who had a health problem, but he will send a message about by video. But also today we have a special for other reasons. This is like a high school reunion or so. We have three generations of ICTP directors in the audience. So you have Professor Srinivasan who is sitting here in the first row. I don't know. So the students don't know him, but the rest of the staff know. And as he was the director before me, so it's another for us to have him participating in this event. And then we have myself. And also the next director who is sitting here. Where is Atish? Who is there? So we can just... And it's also special, particularly for me because this is the last time I will be chairing this event, which is one of my favorites in the year. So I would be very sad to leave, but I don't start crying now. I have two more months to do it. So let's celebrate. Okay, so we start the order. You have seen the program. We will start with the Spirit of Salama Award. And we have a short break. And then we have the accreditation ceremony. The break is such that it is designed in a way that nobody leaves the room. So we will try to entertain you while this happened. And the reason is that we have to change some things here to go from one ceremony to the next, but it will take a few minutes. So let me start with this. So this is the Spirit of Salama Award. So you know that there are three awardees this year. And every year is announced by the Salam family precisely on the birthday of Abdul Salam, which is the 29th of January. So that day we have usually the Salam lectures, which are the Highlight Academic Activity. And at the same time, we announce at the end of the lecture, so at some point during the lectures, who had been given the award for the Spirit of Salama Award. So the Salam family analyzes several proposals and so on. They come up with a selection. And this year I was particularly pleased with the selection. So the three awardees, as you know, is first is Jacob Pallis, who is a very good friend of ICDP for many years. Jacob is a top mathematician from Brazil. He has been very close to ICDP in different aspects. He was a member of our scientific council for several years. He was the chairman of the scientific council for three years or four. And then at some point, he also became the secretary general of TOAS and then the president of TOAS. So some of you may remember that when we celebrated the 45th anniversary of ICDP, he came and gave one of the keynote speeches. He has been a model for all of us as a success story, how you can build science and scientists in the developing countries. So he has played a major role in building up an institute called SIMPIME in Brazil, who is one of the leading institutions for mathematics. So that's the first awardee. Then the second is, I would say, I have to say personally, my very good friend, Sandra Rodicella. Sandra is a model for many of us. She has been here for many years. Salam called him to build up a group and then this... I don't even read the communications on the phone. And he has been much more than just building up a research group. He has been sending the message of ICDP worldwide with many, many contributions for supporting scientists in the most difficult countries from all over the world. I always recall when we visited together in Nigeria, so they called him Papa Africa, which was very nice. They also thought that he was the director of ICDP, by the way, because he looks more like a director than myself. And the third awardee is the whole group of the libraries. I think he would have Nicoleta and the whole team, which I represent in the library. That's very, very special for us. The library is such an important aspect of ICDP's life and it has been that for many years in the beginning. We are always proud to say that we have one of the best libraries in mathematics and physics in the whole Europe, probably the very best. But not only the content of the books and the journals, but also the spirit of the people who will work there, who are always willing to help anybody who comes here. So we're very pleased that the Salam family decided to recognize the library as a team for this award, which I think that reflects the spirit of Abdul Salam. So I congratulate also of you. So now to start, before we give the awards, I will ask Ahmad Salam to say a few words and then we'll start with the ceremony. Please, Ahmad. Be here again today and to be the fifth award of the Spirit of Salam award. This is always a very emotional time for me. Just on the journey over here, I was thinking, it's now been 54 years since I first came to Trieste. And there is only one other person in this room who can make that claim and that of course is Andrei Hamond, who's sitting up there, who's just about to reach his 90th birthday. And as Andrei told me, he met my father first in 1962, which is only two years after I met my father. So I have something on him in that regard. 54 years, I can tell you a lot of stories about what I've seen in ICTP. But the biggest, and whilst there's been a lot of ups and downs and changes over the years, the essential spirit of ICTP has been kept at the same level. And that's a testament to the foundations that my father put together and also the wonderful work done by the subsequent directors who've all worked in their own way to keep that spirit of openness, of comradeship, of support and love for everybody who comes through the door. Whatever their background, wherever they may come from, everybody always has such time and such commitment and such passion to help everyone. And that's a spirit that my father really led all the way back from 1964. And I'm so pleased that it's still here today. And it's still alive and in such good form. I could spend some time talking about my father, but I think my message is really very simple. Whilst his science was special, it was not unique. His background clearly was unique and how he came to his where he was. But his science was a means to an end. The end was ICTP. And whenever I go and talk about my father around the world now, I always remind people that his most enduring legacy is not his Nobel, it's not his science, it's ICTP. And every single person who passes through ICTP, whether they're students, academic staff, or the administrative staff, they're really all the legacy of the Salam. And that's the reason that we're all here today. My family's commitment remains completely undiluted, whatever we can do to help support ICTP and carry it on. And it's a great honour for us to have Atheesh now driving the ship in two months time, not yet, so sit tight, you're not in charge yet. But we're here to support in any shape or form that we can, just as we built a wonderful relationship with Fernando. We'd like to carry on that relationship and give you whatever support we can. And the Spirit of Salam Award is just a small example of that. I guess really ICTP did not come about because of the science of Atheesh Salam, it came about because of the spirit of Atheesh Salam. And I remember when he started working, he would divide his days into three. One third for his students, one third for administrative matters, and one third for his own work. And that was a recipe he continued all the way through his working life. So making himself available for his students at whatever time of the day was required was an absolute priority for him and giving them that time and inspiring them. And I remember one of his students from Imperial telling me that I attended each and every one of your father's lectures. I didn't understand a single word, but he inspired me. And that was the story of my father's life. Now, in my case, he scared the hell out of me. So that I can make one wonderful claim that even though I'm not a physicist, I'm an economist by background. And I make this claim very openly now. I've studied at Imperial and I've studied at ICTP. Because whenever we came here for summer holidays, father would choose some poor, unlucky, miserable so-and-so to say, right, teach my son mathematics, teach my son physics. So every Saturday in London, after school, when we had school on Saturdays, when I was growing up, I'd have to go to Imperial College and there's a Sri Lankan professor who would teach me there. So I studied at Imperial. I'm sticking to that story. No one can take it away from me. And I studied at ICTP because again, when they came here, some poor, miserable Egyptian professor whose name I've forgotten now was told to teach me physics and maths. I don't know whether he was more scared or I was more scared because then my father would ask him what I had learnt. And if he hadn't taught me, he would get the receiving end of my father's anger. And then I'd get the receiving end when I got home in the evening. So there's some wonderful stories about ICTP. I'm absolutely delighted again that we've managed to find three wonderful recipients of our award. Jacob, as Fernando just said, has a long and historic relationship with ICTP in Tuas. And we are greatly indebted to him for the work he's done. Sandro also, the relationship goes back to the early 80s and a wonderful relationship with my father, so much support and love for my father. And he never, ever stood up to my father. Whatever my father said to him, he quietly got on with it. And in some ways, I hate to say this, but above all else, the library. And the library from Maria Zingarelli from the early days, all the way through to where we are now. The library has been an absolute beacon of light in the centre. And whenever people came here, including myself from a very young age, we'd always want to go and spend time in the library because the librarians were just the most welcoming, loving, warm people. And so we're absolutely delighted to recognise them in the spirit of a SLAM award for this year. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ahmed. So, it's very kind words and I appreciate very much of course your father work, but also the closeness from the Stalin family for all these years to ICTP. So, we can proceed now. So, we can start calling one by one over the awardees. And Ahmed will give the award. The first one is Jacob Pales. As I said before, he will not be with us because he had surgery recently. I will read a statement about his award. And then I understand he will send us a short message. He's in the hospital and we have here Stefano Lozato, who is very nicely addressed to receive the award. So, Jacob is for his extraordinary contribution to the cause of science worldwide. As a renowned mathematician, a mentor of young researchers, a leader in key international organisations and an indefatigable promoter of scientific advancement, especially in the developing world. So, we have the pleasure to give the award to Jacob Pales. It's a great honour for me to receive the outstanding 2019 Spirit of Abidu Salam scientific award. Unfortunately, due to unexpected surgery, I am unable to be present at this ceremony. So, I asked my former student, Stefano Lozato, to read the speech on my behalf and drink a glass of Brunello de Montaltino. Thank you very much. So, I know that Jacob is watching from Rio de Janeiro. This ceremony is live-streamed. So, Jacob, I hope you that you saw us the reaction of the message and I would like to say that it is a really a huge privilege for me to be able to represent you at this moment and Fernando already gave a very nice introduction and said a little bit about the amazing role that you have played and I just want to confirm that. I think for those of you who do not know you as well as we do that really I think the combination of the mathematical level of Jacob Pales who did his PhD in Berkeley under the guidance of Steve Smael and afterwards went back to IMPA and really became in the words of many of his colleagues the life and soul and the driving force that really brought IMPA to the excellent Institute in Mathematical Research that it is now. He led so many students, he has more than 40 students that he has supervised including really really top people in their own institutions, people like Marcelo Viana who is now Director of IMPA, people like Wellington de Mello who was the advisor of Artur Avila who was in the fields medal recently and so he has left an incredible legacy, mathematical legacy but also a human legacy and a legacy really as was described in the spirit of Abdus Salam. I will maybe just recollect a few memories because I met him exactly here in this room in 1991 because I was a student in I was a student at CISA, I just started my PhD at CISA and Jacob Pales was one of the organizers of the conferences in dynamical systems which in fact he started organizing from 1983 right on a regular basis so this photo here is from the very first big school and workshop in dynamical systems in 1983 and there are several this one was in 1984 and this one was in 1986 you can see people like Yokoz with a beard there I don't know if you can see him there and Christopher Zeman and very are the very very prestigious people in the world of dynamical systems there is also some nice photos of him here in this room I believe at ICDP with Abdus Salam and Jacob Sinai who has recently been the winner of the April Prize one of the most prestigious mathematical physicists I don't know who the lady is actually but and let's see these are other this is 91 so this was the year that I met him maybe some of you can recognize me in the photo no but I am there I'm also in this photo in 1992 and then there have been this one is a wonderful photo because this is Jacob Pales this is Marcelo Viana his student who is now director of IMPA this is again Yasha Yakov Sinai and this is Jean-Christophe Yokoz who won the fields medal and he was also through Jacob was one of the organizers of these schools and workshops and when I came they were the directors of the school that I came to yes so Jean-Christophe Yokoz was also in the scientific council and Jacob Pales was on the scientific council and I have to say that I this is one with Fernando here also here and this is one I think in okay at some point also in this room so these are testimonies to how frequent the visitor he was here as Fernando said Chaco was a was on the executive committee on the scientific council here and chair of the scientific council and I have to say that I really can relate personally to his role as a tutor and as a mentor and I remember when I met him in 91 and 92 he had a whole group of students that were here and he adopted me into this group into this family and he used to come and we'd sit in the coffee bar which was not very different from the way it is now and he would give us problems to work on and he would say okay this particular thing you just go and you drink a juice and think about it and then he'd say well really you should drink a beer or wine but I'm not allowed to tell you about that so now I guess he thinks I'm old enough and he can you can tell me right Jaco to drink a glass of Brunello I will follow your advice and so I will read now the words that Jaco asked me to read specifically because he could not be here so this is the message that he sent it is a great honor for me to receive the outstanding 2019 Spirit of Abdul Salam award it is one of the most special moments in my scientific life for such a great honor to be bestowed on me I wish to express my deepest recognition to the International Center for Threatical Physics and all my colleagues who have worked with me over the years being with you today in such a great occasion made me remember my family especially my parents that came to Brazil from the north of Lebanon in the case of my father and Syria in the case of my mother also my siblings sons and daughters grandsons and granddaughters and my dear wife Sueli I also want to mention once again the importance of my scientific colleagues from Brazil and from abroad with whom I have had scientific and professional collaborations moreover I wish to dedicate this special prize to my colleagues and visitors at the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics where I was the PhD advisor to more than 42 students and many two more than 200 descendants I'm also very proud of having been the president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences for nine years but especially very honored to having been the president of TWAS and member and chair of the scientific council of ICTP all my life I have worked in the area of dynamical systems and although it can be traced back to the Greeks and even before we attribute to the great French mathematician Henry Poincaré the creation of the modern theory of dynamical systems it is a main mathematical instrument to model the evolution of many phenomena in nature the 1963 Lawrence model for weather prediction demonstrated the butterfly effect a small change in the weather conditions can have an important effect at large if I can mention anything I've learned from the butterfly effect is that the small changes of my scientific career brought me here to be honored before you tonight this I could not predict but I'm certainly very happy and flattered many thanks to you all so on behalf of Jaco I want to thank you but especially I just want to take this opportunity to thank you Jaco really both personally and on behalf of everyone for everything you have done for us please also wish you a very speedy recovery from all of us here yes and everyone here wishes you a very speedy recovery and I'm sure we will see you back at ICTP very very soon thank you thank you very much Stefano and congratulations again Jaco because I hope you get better and better I can tell you you will be fine in a few months because I had the same problem you had six months ago and I'm still here alive so so okay so the next one is Sandro for his dedication of in fostering research in idiosperic physics radio science and its application in digital communication through other developing countries so I would say a few more words about Sandro but now he's receiving the price Sandro as I said before he has played a key role he came here as I understand 1989 I have been training many people 88 about and apparently has been training more than almost 3000 scientists from all over the world in different activities worships and schools and so on he's one of the you know extremely active persons in ICTP since I came he hasn't changed a lot at all and I'm sure well he has many many things to offer again we wanted to emphasize the role that he and his team play with Nigeria trying to to help the Nigerian University to to to have access to internet and after that I think more than a hundred universities in Nigeria have internet and starting from that moment in the 1990s when Sandro and his team helped so I think the impact that you can measure activity from ICTP is a good example that I always emphasize because it's very concrete and but overall I think Sandro's career has been wonderful it's a real commitment to the mission of of ICTP and I'm sure he has many things to share with us so thank you and congratulations Thank you. Dear Professor Salam family. Dear Professor Kevedo. Dear colleagues. I am sincerely grateful for this precious award established by Professor Salam family that is given to me today. It is a gift that I will look after for the rest of my life. It is like if somebody is telling me mission accomplished. My first visit to ICTP was in 1982 when I from Argentina was invited to lecture about ionospheric radio propagation during a course almost two months long those were the the courses of that time that was on geomagnetism the ionosphere and magnetosphere. It was an important and rewarding experience to see scientists from all over the world studying and working together following the vision and spirit of the founder of the center Professor Abdul Salam. At the Nobel banquet ceremony in 1979 he stated in his address he stated the creation of physics is the shared heritage of all mankind east and west north and south have equally participated in it. In that year of 1982 I started understanding the high standards of division that those world represented. The spirit of the founder of the ICTP became clearer to me when I was invited in 1988 by Professor Salam to join Professor Spansa and Feoli of the University of Trieste to start carrying to start scientific activities about the earth system. These activities were carried out in the framework of a UN industrial and development organization pilot project the International Center for Science and High Technology ICS that was founded on the initiative of Professor Abdul Salam. Later on he decided that our research should be integrated in the ICTP structure itself. This was the prophetic vision of Salam about the importance of the study of the earth system for the future of human society. It was also the recognition by the great theoretician that Salam was of the significance of the experimental observation of nature in order to understand its physical processes. He wrote, soon I knew the craft of experimental physics was beyond me. It was the sublime quality of patients, patients in accumulating data, patients with recalcitrant equipment which I sadly lacked. Let me say that I felt really in glory when Professor Salam received in May 1991 among the many of his awards the honorary degree from director of my alma mater the National University of Tucumán in Argentina. I love this picture from that occasion and I have to tell also the following. I am a Christian believer and Professor Salam was an Islam believer and I share his thoughts when he wrote, I have never seen any dichotomy between my faith and my science. Professor Salam vision and spirit has been during the last 30 years a permanent guide for my scientific life and for my dedication to the human and social advancement through science. I consider that my work is just a service to my sisters and brothers from east, west, south and north and let me finish by living to my young colleagues here present this major message that I believe Professor Salam would have approved. Our scientific work is a gift and a privilege because we are among those in the world that are paid to do what we like. In our research let us be always searching with honesty and dedication and let us be generously open to transmit what we know for the benefit of others without any selfishness and thank you. Thank you very much Sandra for such a nice award and remember this of Salam with a very young person sitting beside him I don't know who he was but he looked very handsome and young and very good. Okay so now we got for the next the third awardee is the ICTP Marie Curie Library for its important role in supporting ICTP's mission building sustainable science by providing the services and space conducive to the acquisition of knowledge so congratulations to the whole team of the library Nicoletta and everybody so please join me. Dear family of Abdul Salam, dear ICTP family, dear diploma students, the youngest members of the family, I have been thinking a lot about what to say today actually I didn't sleep at night. It is a responsibility to speak on behalf of all the colleagues who have been working for the library in these 55 years since the very start of ICTP in 64. Going back I could count about 50 staff plus and consultants and more than 200 special library assistants so it's a small army. I'm not going to show pictures or slides because such a large number of collaborators would not fit into any picture and we hardly have the complete record of the names of all of them. Therefore I choose not to mention any name as names are not important in this story. My only hope is that all colleagues would agree with what I'm going to say. This award has been given to the service provided by the library over all these years to all scientists coming to ICTP and for the services we could extend of campus. Such service is nothing but a collaborative effort. Besides the library staff I cannot think of a single ICTP office or unit that has not collaborated to enable us to provide a valuable service to the scientific community. We could say that the entire ICTP community comes together in the library in its effort to build a supportive and productive environment for students and researchers. The library was born on the same day of the center or even before in the mind of Abdul Salam whose concern was that the researchers and students could find all the scientific information needed for their work without wasting time. A good library is the access to scientific literature and the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with peers for scientists coming from disadvantaged parts of the world. As you all know those are the pillars of the ICTP building. Further to pay special attention to our library Abdul Salam strongly believed in the crucial importance of libraries as a source of knowledge and expressed this belief again and again. In the 70s he set up the Center's Books and Journals Donation Program to help libraries in less developed countries. Still in the 90s he was seeking international support and funds with ambitious plan to create a supply for 50 to 100 national libraries in developing countries. The project was too expensive it could not be realized. He was so concerned about availability of scientific literature to all with no constraint that in an article dated 91 he made the provocative proposal to publishers to abandon their copyright and legalize the pirate practice of selling low-cost editions of western scientific bestsellers which sounds very contemporary. No doubt that he would have been enthusiastic and would have backed the open access and open science movement and all advances toward the democratization and sustainability of access to science that we are witnessing these days. He had of course a clear idea of the relevance of science communication and dissemination and he was forward-looking as in 89 most of you were not born. He required that the speeches of all the high-level visitors to the center be taped. The tape was an old format for young people of audio recording and video recording. So in the end you see we ended up in talking about Abu Salam and not about the library. We can't help it it is in the DNA of the library. We have always been working towards two objectives. One is Salam's objective to serve the hungry scientists with quick and easy access to a wealth of scientific literature. The other is our concern to preserve and transmit to all those visiting the center the history and the legacy of this special place which is inevitably linked with Salam's vision and life. Now to go back to the award we read that it is given to someone who has worked tirelessly to further Salam's humanitarian passion and vision who has gone beyond the call of duty to assist and support others. Well to be honest and I hope that all colleagues agree with me none of us went beyond his or her duties. We have been just driven by Salam's example and committed to provide a service to live up to his expectations and I think he was quite demanding wasn't he? After all the value of our work is measurable only in the impact it has on others. Librarian's role is to facilitate access to knowledge our work helps others to achieve given results. In a recent library survey aimed at getting feedback and suggestions to improve our services we've got many heartening and supportive comments and that is our reward. We like to think that the library has contributed to change the life of many young scientists by giving them the tools they needed to find their way in science and succeed. We dare to believe that impactful researchers and significant scientific achievements were originated in our library nurtured by our resources and facility maybe even the work that brought the Nobel Prize to Abdus Salam. We did not expect other rewards and it is therefore an unexpected honor for us to receive this award today. It makes us even more proud to be part of the ICDP community. So we thank you on behalf of all colleagues for having thought about the library for this year's Spirit of Salam award. I wish to close by saying that although the award by its very nature is assigned to personalities in their late career in recognition of their life's achievements my hope is that the award to our service represents not only a recognition for the past but an incentive to keep up the good work and maintain and revive the role of the library as a common heritage for the future of the ICDP. We would better look at the future of the library service and not at the past. New technology shaping our lives and changing the way we work are developing very fast but economic changes are not going at the same pace. Knowledge is still not yet accessible to all and there are still gaps between different worlds. Our service must change to keep up with new ways of producing and disseminating science. The future library will be shaped as a social place a knowledge hub, a community where new professional profiles will network with scientists and contribute to the life cycle of scientific research. We hope that ICDP will support this necessary change in the spirit of Salam's legacy. Thank you and now I wish to invite whoever from the library want to say some words to join us. Through my short story I wish to say thank you on a wonderful award spirit of the Salam. Now I will read. When the war began in my city Sarajevo in the country of my birth Bosnia and Herzegovina on April 6 1992 Professor Salam was one of the first 17 Nobel laureates to sign the petition against the war in Bosnia. Professor Salam knew very well how to recognize what was just and human who was the victim and who was the aggressor. His sense of justice and for humanity had the same power as his scientific work. It is thanks to the very great effort of Professor Salam and the whole team of employers of ICDP who Professor Salam and trust to save me and my family from besieged Sarajevo that at the end of November 1992 I arrived in ICDP and immediately I started to work as a scientist up to 1995. Until the beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina I was assistant professor of physics and mathematics at the faculty of mechanical engineering university of Sarajevo. I spoke many times with Professor Salam. He requested me to promise him that I will not leave scientific work and that I will finish my PhD that I had already started after my master's degree. The conversation with Professor Salam was an unforgettable wonderful experience. He insisted that I continue my education because he knew very well that knowledge brought freedom and enabled the soul. I promised to finish my PhD and I did it but unfortunately I was not able to tell him because he disappeared too fast. I believe he would have liked my topic mass neutrino and supersymmetry. In 1995 I started to work in the library. For this job a PhD in high energy, cosmonutriastroparticle physics was not required but I wanted to complete my PhD because I had promised it to Professor Salam. It was very difficult but I did it. During the whole time I worked in ICTP more than 25 years I felt the care and attention of the persons whom Professor Salam and trust to help me. I have always been very gratefully to these people. Let me take this opportunity to mention only two of many names late Professor Fahim Hussein and above all Miss Angati. I worked at the ICTP library for 22 years and deeply believe and hope that I have justified Professor Salam's expectations. It was a great fortune and privilege for me to be able to work in one of the best libraries in the world. This is not only my opinion it is also the opinion of so many scientists who come and came at ICTP. Working in the library I recognize a new dimension of the beauty without which scientists cannot exist, without knowledge they cannot exist, with the human freedom of mind they cannot exist. Let me remember one of the many anecdotes related to Professor Salam. It shows that scientists are not only rational human beings they are also very sensitive with great understanding and with great souls. It sometimes happened that the scientist borrowed the book and never returned it. Professor Boudinic informed Professor Salam about this. The Professor Salam said that this should not be sanctioned because the books were appropriate by these people who wanted to study. He said that it was a good sign because these books would surely be a great benefit to these people who were unable to buy them. We have to do everything for education because education has to be free for everyone. Professor Salam said that education and knowledge are the most precisely things in the world. Knowledge and education allow us to be free in spirit. Until today our library has retained this wonderful spirit and will continue to retain it. Some time ago a colleague asked me why I had never applied for another type of job which would be more suited to my education and academic title. My answer was no, without any hesitation. Why? I couldn't live without the library without the magic that I feel when I enter the library which is a unique place. This is the treasury that holds many of the secrets of our existence and our answers so isn't that magical. For almost two and a half decades I have worked with brilliant colleagues and now I am retired. It is not easy for me to get used to the fact that I will no longer be with the books that I will no longer go every day into the temple of knowledge, intelligence and human mind achievement. But I know that I will succeed because I succeeded to leave besieged Sarajevo escaping the bombs. Now I'm spiritually encouraged. The spirit and words of Professor Salam as far as I am concerned will continue to last in my mind. I know the knowledge I acquired in the library will be welcomed as fair and with other people. Now on the end I would like to finish with beautiful words you can recognize these words. It is, imagine there is no countries and no religion too and the world will be as one. Thank you so much. I've got just one more one more announcement to make which I wanted to make. It is very important and very dear to me. There's been somebody else who deserves the spirit of Salam award, someone who's been here for 10 years and somebody who's worked tirelessly in his own way to lead from the front and he's consistently worked against all odds in so many different situations and fought so many battles to keep the legacy and memory of my father alive. It was under him we started the spirit of Salam award and we as a family deeply indebted to Fernanda Coveydo and we'd like to award him the spirit of Salam award. It was completely unaware of this. The only person who knew of Joanna and Mary Ann as far as I know were within it so it was a complete shock to the poor boys. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. It's a big surprise I cannot say words. It's just as you know that your father has been an inspiration for me all my life and being here has been one of the greatest experiences since I was born. Since I was just having, I never imagined having the opportunity to direct institutions in such a wonderful mission and spirit. So I promised I wasn't going to cry. It was two months to come but you managed to make me cry. Yes so well thank you very much. I really appreciate it. I'm speechless and a real big surprise and I thank you also to all your families. I have to recover, sorry. Yes. Also thank you for the nice words Nicoletta and Gordana. Gordana the doors of STP are always open for you. So we always thank you for everything you have been doing for us and the whole team in the library I think is very special for STP and yes it's very emotional to listen to your story. Okay so you give me some time to recover so so I think this is the end of the first part of this event and I think it was as I always said we say this is one of my favorite events because it shows the spirit of STPs which is just the spirit of Salam and I managed to make it even more emotional for myself. Thank you very much so okay so we thank again all the awardees and congratulations to all of you and all myself thank you and thank you again to Agmat and the whole family of Salam for keeping this spirit which I think is crucial for the running of these institutions. Thank you very much. Okay so as we promise there will be a short period which will be five minutes at the most to start the next activity. I understand that there's some entertainment prepared. Does anybody have some singing abilities or something? This is the time to come or but I think the team here had prepared some slides or videos so and we will get ready for the next part of the ceremony. Please do not leave the room so just it's nice to stay here and just so you will use this mic for see is easier or would you like to have the this one okay for the photograph. So you prefer the tie clip or this one? Tie clip. Okay may I open now? Okay. Hello hello hello no. Hello hello hello hello hello okay okay that's anyway I can use this one. I call the names or the supervisor put the names? I call them. I just call the coordinator and they call them. No, no, no, perfect. Okay, no it's okay. So each each of you read the name? If you read the name. Okay let's move to the okay can we move to the next stage? Okay so we'll start the next part of the ceremony. So as I said before this is a beautiful combination of different generations in the ICDP. People who have achieved something for the mission and people who have been on the receiving side but also contributing because of the year they have been spending here. So this year we have the order of 40 students and in different areas of our diplomas. By meeting them and talking to the different lecturers I understand this particular year has been very good. The spirit is very good and the level of the students is very good. So we are all very pleased with your performance and your achievements. I think this is the end of your year here. I hope that it has been good for all of you. Our intention is to to check you up essentially to try to to to put you at different levels of work because if you were you were used to work for three hours a day now you are used to work 12 hours a day and hopefully from here on you can work 16 hours a day and now you are being trained. So essentially that's that's one of the the ideas of this diploma but uh but we always say that the diploma is one of the most important activities within ICDP. So you become the core of our community every day. You probably don't notice but we always noticing you when you are having lunch or you're in the cafeteria and so on. This is beautiful to see all this young people here with sharing their experiences and so on. Also for training there's not only the hard work but also for all of you to get to know each other has been very important. I'm talking with some of you. We can see that you have learned language from different countries ideas of food and so on from each of you and so you're becoming friends from totally different backgrounds which i think is very enriching and this is makes an ICDP so special because you we we managed to bring scientists but also students from from all these countries that that and sometimes you don't some of you didn't know about the other countries existence or or traditions or so. So I hope that this year has been good for you and as usually we say is the end of this year but it's also the beginning of a longer career of many other challenges and many other experiences for which we expect and we hope that your experience at ICDP will be a special point that has made it like a phase transition from before and after your your careers. So so we have now the ceremony it's very simple but we always get it wrong so the the point is that I say some inspiring words I just did Paula will say even more inspiring words and which is the very wise person so he can say some things and then then after that we started calling the students one by one and and I will be here only for the photograph I will not do anything so I'll just we call each of the supervisor the supervisor call the student and at some point something magical will happen because then the student name would appear there and then the title of the thesis and then the supervisor will give the the word to the student sometimes also the thesis supervisor can come and so then sometimes I will squeeze in the photo so I can also show and then we will do that section by section and yes and and I think that that that that will be the the program so okay so essentially that that's that's the plan for the next one hour and then hopefully we finish before and they will have some refreshments and some after that so now the words of wisdom from Paula so words of wisdom first of all I suggest to stop at 12 hours per day of work it's okay if you get there it's it's good enough so I want to first of all I want to congratulate all of you because I mean if you look back and you saw the pictures it was a long a long year and and you had to face many things so you came in a completely different environment in a strange place where there is no and and then Bora and and there is a lot of work and so I think you should be proud of yourself so this is the is a celebration in which at least for today you should be really proud of where you got and I wish you that the best so it's a celebration also for to start something new so each of you will start a new life from from tomorrow somebody will come back to Trieste somebody else will go back to her or his own country somebody will go somewhere else in the world but I wish you to to find your trajectory so now you have learned a lot but it's it's time also to find your path and I wish you the best I would like to take this occasion sorry to introduce something sad in this ceremony to remember a past diploma student Kiamaka Okoli from Nigeria she was a diploma student in the class of 2012 and Kiamaka passed away a few months ago after getting her PhD in Waterloo and okay so I like to remember her because I remember her in the in this ceremony and I think the lesson is that life is short and find your path as soon as possible and okay so please as you as you see ICDP is a community as as you saw also in this afternoon and you are also part of it for sure and you should also try to help ourselves in a sense that you you come from different countries and you know your country much better than than we do so if if you can help us to bring new students to advertise all the activities ICDP does it's very important it's not because really your your role model and your connections with your own country is very important to to to the diploma and to ICDP in general anyway it's not the end of the story we are we are here so as you know ICDP has many programs to help your future career as as a PhD student as a postdoc and with conferences workshops so I'm sure that I will see all of you in in in a short time so it's not it's not a goodbye see you again let me okay we are here but we don't do much so let me thank Patricia for her work for the diploma in these despite adverse conditions and let me also thank Sandra and also all the community of ICDP that helped the diploma student to survive in in this year and and let me thank finally all of you to count to ICDP I mean of course you should also thank ICDP but it's very important to us to to have young faces every year otherwise it would be much more boring so thank you for sharing your enthusiasm and and as we saw in the picture so thank you very much and good luck okay thank you very much Paolo so we will start the ceremony and and then so each of the sections will start calling so I think we start in a concrete order and the concrete order is high energy first okay so I see okay this is new I think all right so we start with the Mahmoud Alawashra from Palestine is let's clap so let me read so it is this was on a strong flavor transformation of neutrinos and collective effects in supernovae and he did it with the supervision of Alexei Smirnov unfortunately Alexei is not around so I will play the role of me another second we have Ayoab Bahiru from Ethiopia the title of his thesis was gravitation out of entanglement with the supervision of Kiryako's I think it's about four is too much now we have Oybek Gambardiev from Uzbekistan he worked on conformal field theories in two dimensions under the supervision of Narein now we have Emilio Estrada Gonzales from Guatemala he worked on SU5 constructing a granulified theory under the supervision of Goran Sanyanovich who is not around now we have Fatma Gerab from Tunisia she worked on domain walls and monopoles under the supervision of Goran Sanyanovich now we have Mehmet Gumus from Turkey and he worked on evolution of axion field in the early universe under the supervision of Giovanni Villadoro now we have Nicholas Loaiza from Ecuador and he worked on black hole with scarred hair under my supervision now it's time for Kevin Pardede from Indonesia he worked on gravitational waves from Fasiello under the supervision of Merdad Mibabai and last but not least Nilufar Vardiana from Iran she worked on a transversible wormholes under the supervision of Kira Kospapadolimas okay so now Misha for the comments butter now we proceed with condensed matter students three students already left to Boston Houston and Spain but there are still our students who stay here and I would like to call Joel Ebot from Cameroon he did his work Fendi Sargevsson Gupta model many body localization in and the effects of disorder under supervision of Marcella Dalmonte and Tiago Mendes Santos so Mika Ferrer from Philippines is admitted to for PG program in Northeastern University in Boston she is not present and but she did her diploma work entitled spin layer locking in Platinum DCLinite under supervision of Natasha Stovic so the next is Harit Kumi from Ghana she's also absent because she's admitted for master program in the University of Basque Country and Saint Sebastian this is the Northeastern program and she did her diploma work under supervision of Laridana Kazalis and the project is entitled determining the elastic modulus of biological samples using atomic force microscopy so Rabindra Olia from Nepal and I would like to call Rabindra he's present here he did his diploma work tunnel current through nanoconstriction under my supervision so and now we come to Hasek Karla Spilayo from Philippines so he's admitted to for PG program in Akinava in the Institute of Science and Technology in Japan so he did his work entitled Caldash Model in Low-Dimensional Systems under my supervision now we have Nishan Ranabhat from Nepal admitted to ICTPCS a program his thesis studying POTS criticality using Monte Carlo simulation is done under supervision of Marcello Dalmonte and Azej Jelic and last but not least is William Sininba from Uganda he's absent he's admitted to for PG program in the University of Houston in Texas and his work dynamical study of bisonic cluster forming models at criticality is done under supervision of Marcello Dalmonte and Angela Angelone thank you Misha congratulations to all the students we follow up now with mathematics first we have Asim Abdel Rauf from Egypt he's not here he already left and his thesis was with Professor Villegas on elliptic curves and models theorem next we have Eugen Bonasco from Moldova who did his work with Stefano Luzato and the title is uniform hyperbolicity algorithms and Markov partitions then we have Munika Kabriya Zambrano from Guatemala and her thesis was quantum invariance of links and three manifolds with Pavel Putrov the next is a Kakinboy Egan Berganov from Uzbekistan who already left and his thesis was convex bodies and Fourier analysis with Canelo next is Fosy Higab from Egypt and the title of his thesis was schemes and comology with me then we have Carlos Ospina Tugillo from Colombia his project was on the regularity of maximal functions with Emmanuel Canelo he already left then we have Son Jingri from North Korea he did his work on characteristic classes and application with Claudio Arezzo who's not here and Pavel Putrov then we have Hevan Shemtaga from Ethiopia she did a project on introduction to schemes with me she already left then we have Assad Ula from Pakistan the title of his project was adjudicity and decay of correlations with Stefano Luzato and finally there's Joshua Bindare from Nigeria the title of his thesis was the uniformization theorem and classical results in Romanian geometry with Claudio Arezzo who's not here and Zacharias Sostome very good so we'll have the last group is air system physics and Ricardo will call the students good afternoon everyone so we start with Isaac Bafour from Ghana who did his research with Adrian Tompkins on water vapor variability in the tropics in the new era 5 reanalysis then it's Tithan Duong from Vietnam with a thesis on ground motion prediction equation for Iran supervised by Karim Audea next is Liliana Garcia Olivia from Guatemala did his research on usd mesoamerican region and its relation with sea surface temperatures supervised by Fred Kusharski now is Yamichael Morofa Avalos from Cuba with a thesis on variability of convection clustering in the trim precipitation rather rainfall rate and profile supervised by agent Tompkins there's the turn of Melissa Salili from Ethiopia did a project on intrinsic and scattering quality factor estimation in layer media supervised by Stefano Parolai next is Apsara Sharma Dakal from Nepal did a project on high detection and location in micro earthquakes in northeastern Italy supervised by Karim Audea and we finished with John Sebandecche from Uganda did a project on the benguel upwelling system its representation in semi-5 in ocean models supervised by myself okay so each of the of the sections they have selected a special award for students that did particularly well so we will follow the same order as we had as so I will as uh uh I do it no I do it yes okay so I do it so for uh high-energy physics to the best performing diploma student in high-energy cosmology and astroparticle physics 2019 is Nicolás Loisa Romero for a condensed matter the best performing diploma student in condensed matter physics 2019 Nishan Ranabat is for mathematics the best performing diploma student in mathematics 2019 Asim Abdul-Rawaf and his substantive question finally to the best performing diploma student in earth system physics 2019 John Bosco Sebandecche very good so I understand that some of the students were volunteered to say some words so uh so this may be the the time to do it uh so we have been following the order of high-energy condensed matter mathematics in earth system physics let's try to do the other opposite order so let's start with earth system physics so who had been volunteered my name is John Michel Morfa I'm from Cuba and I'm probably uh I can say a former ESP ICDP diploma student so I'd like to say a few words and I have written down something but then I couldn't print it so bear with me please I'll try to improvise something so I'll let you start by saying thank you very much to all or ICDP members and to all the people that has been involved in this great and difficult year we have been through when Patricia first told me to speak on behalf ICDP I mean on behalf ESP I was really uh hesitating my hesitation was first I needed to to speak after great speeches so it's really difficult to keep up and then it's really it's also really difficult to summarize this wonderful experience we've had in this one year in just a few minutes and also of course a ceremony or graduation speech is an event for someone in part wisdom to a group of students that just want to get the diploma and go home right but this is not the case thankfully because I'm not a wise person and you deep down don't want to go home I know that so I'd like to start thanking all the professors and I will talk about of course ESP professors like to start with Karim professor Karim and yes guys I know his stuff but but eventually I think I really believe that he cares a lot about us and he actually wants us to to talk and to do science properly then I want to thank a professor Thumpkins for his great advice and for introducing us along with professor Fred to the wonderful and incredible complexity of the atmospheric sciences also I would like to talk about a bit about the ocean because otherwise I will get some bad reviews you over here so professor Farnetti thank you very much for for many many wonderful lectures and for deriving everything from first principles so leaving behind blackboard that can easily be printed out and published so thank you very much and last but not least the ICDP staff members especially Patricia and Sandra actually have had a huge impact in our lives here and without them we can actually we have never been able to survive here so thank you very much well thank you again and this is it okay so now I understand that Monika had volunteered to talk about mathematics good afternoon everybody it's an honor for me to be here I really at some point of the diploma I didn't feel I was going to do it so it feels really great to be here talking to you and first of all I want to thank to all of the ICDP staff because it has been quite an adventure since the moment we got accepted and we helped to get the Italian visa as most of you can relate it was quite difficult also my second house which was the library so really thank you to all the people who were very kind and smiley every day and they receive you with open doors and all open arms really the library is an important part of the for us in the diploma I also would like to thank all the professors because we not only learned mathematics or physics in the other cases but also some personal experiences and they are really really wise and they really really were there for us whenever we needed them also to my colleagues because I am very talkative in other topics but in mathematics I was quite shy and now I can say that I can discuss mathematics as at a reasonable level I still have a lot to learn but really really it was very nice experience and we also shared with other cultures food I like to collect bank notes and coins and it was such an amazing experience we learned some words from other languages and it was great I heard some people saying hola to me which is hello in Spanish every day and yeah it was very great and also I enjoyed how ICDP cares a lot about women in science this is very important for me because we are a minority in many aspects not only for developing countries but also as a woman in science and this is it's a it has been a great opportunity to be here and okay and last but not least I would like to thank Fernando Cabello because I know your duty is hard here you're also a role model for us Guatemalan students and also thank to you we apply here and we spread the word in other Central American countries and I really would like to encourage you guys to continue in the way because you're already role mothers in your own countries so to finish I would like to quote my favorite scientific quote which is from Henry Poincaré somebody else already quoted him but that's a good thing that I didn't choose the same so it says the scientist doesn't study nature because it's useful to do so he studies it because he takes pleasure in it and he takes pleasure in it because it's beautiful if nature were not beautiful it would be not worth knowing and life wouldn't be worth living so go ahead guys and good luck and best of wishes for your next step in science thank you very much Monica thank you and so now we have a Nishan Rannabad from Nepal is going to talk about the from the contest matter group please hello everyone I'm Nishan Rannabad condensed matter and statistical physics diploma student well I didn't prepare much but see as I recollect my thoughts from the last one year I think one the most important thing that I have really learned is the fact that time is really a relative term because this last year from first of September 2018 until now has been the shortest one year for me like it feels like yesterday that I landed in Trieste and reported to Patricia because the diploma course was like so intensely designed that we didn't even get any time to stop and think about how the time is flowing we just went to the floor and there were like lots of hard work sleepless nights and sacrifices and frustrations at many times but I think at the end it was all worth it as Abraham Lincoln said only the test of fire makes the fine still and I think I am getting on that way because before a year I was a completely confused person didn't know what to do where to go now I know I have a certain direction to follow and also a proper guidance to continue in that direction and for that I want to thank ICTP as the institution I want to thank all the faculties all my professors I also want to thank all the staff members who really made our life very easy here and I also want to thank something outside ICTP the beautiful and kind and helping people of the beautiful city of Trieste and so this is the formal part of my speech I also want to extend a little bit towards something that we generally don't talk about because as a diploma student our main focus is always in academics but I think there is something in ICTP that is as equally important if not more as academics and that is the relation on tolerance and equality so when we started we were a bunch of people from you know we different colors we spoke different languages we came from different geography and most importantly we were raised in a different culture there was definitely excitement but more than excitement there was a sense of difference but the good thing is this sense of difference crumbled very soon and out of it grew a sense of comfort and now as I look onto these people I feel like they are my brothers and sisters with whom I grew up all my life like I feel like I've known them for decades but the truth is it's only one year that I have known them so I think this sense of comfort is the true measure of the fact that beneath these man-made and socially created differences we are one and I'd like to thank ICTP once again for bringing us together ICTP is really the hotpot where all the cultures of the world melt and become one thank you kind of world sense so now Nicolas Loisa Romero from Ecuador is volunteer to say some words from the high energy physics good afternoon everybody so when I was told to give the speech so I would not talk just behalf of me but on behalf of all my classmates from the high energy section so I will start of course express all our gratitude towards Fernando or all the academic staff the professors or teachers the postdocs the tutors the PhD students that are always willing to help us of course I would like to thank Patricia she's harsh but fair I would like to thank Sandra and the diploma office that has helped us a lot all the people in ICTP from the administrative personnel from the library from the visa office the people that works at the cafeteria the bar the people that works to have this all the building working perfectly like a clock swiss clock so I would like to thank everybody is this has been a great year for us now that we are going somewhere else and we are taking with us not just the physics and the science but we are taking with us the great view from of Trieste from the cafeteria we're taking with us the Bora we are taking with us the the food now but now I'm going to eat food because I'm missing that very much I will I think I will not eat pizza for the rest of my life I have it too much pizza here I don't know what else to say but just gratitude so now now that we have finished this year I think now our goal is to become ambassadors of the idea and the mission of ICTP to not just I mean we do research we do science now but always with the mission of helping people through science and helping our countries to develop so that's what with the main idea we should go from here thank you very much everybody thank you very much thank you very nice words so this is not yet the end I would like just to say a few words just to thank everybody who has been involved in this this diploma this year of course all the the heads of the diploma for each section Paolo who's the leader but all the other ones so let's give an applause to all of them then to Patricia who has been the driving force of the diploma for many many many years and she has been working very hard for this year and many other ones and we owe a lot to her so let's recognize her Sandra has been quiet there she we said being assistant so let's thank Sandra also as as the students mentioned every single lecturer I think some of them are here but many are traveling they are the ones who make this diploma happen in the lectures every day and the direct contact with the students and so on so we can all thank the all the lecturers all together with you don't mind also as people say is the ICDP is not only this but it's a whole machinery they're working from the visa office the library everybody in the administration that are always working for everything that makes for things to happen here for the students to have the best possible working conditions to get a proper apartment coupons for the food and all those things even people from catering even though they're not the ICDP employees they're part of our family also so I think it's a team effort and that's something I appreciate very much is the whole ICDP is more or less working together for this diploma to be successful and every year is a challenge so I think I want to thank everybody went from ICDP to help us on this okay so final for the students as what we all as I said before is is this year supposed to be a critical year for you for you and for us is we hope that now is a you start a new development in your careers different challenges different visions different targets different experience you're going to different countries and so but the important thing is that you can keep attached to ICDP for the rest of your life somehow and we would like you to be partners of ICDP for our mission so we hope that what I like to call is the this human aspect of science is is imprinted in all of us that have been at ICDP so it's good to do science but also it's important to to to make it available to everybody and to try to help everybody to get the opportunities and so we count on you we're getting old you're young so in that sense you are the future for for your countries both for us for science and also to for ICDP to we need you to to to be part of our community and be partnering helping every other scientist in any place in the world that has some difficult conditions and so so it's a it's a that's the price we ask you for for this year essentially just to be part of our family and be and be part of our mission so I hope I wish you all the best for in the next move so I but I hope that you keep all in the rest of your career always send some link to ICDP as as Paolo said we have many activities and and so hopefully you know that you may have an institution some place or some university where you will work or any other place that you will work and we hope that you consider always ICDP like a second home that you can come and visit and be part of it it's important for us that you keep well it's important that you keep communicated with each other which is very good but also for us it's good that you can keep communicating with us so it's good to let us know what is happening to you to your life and it's anything we can support give you extra support just to to let us know of course this is for me to say those things because I'm living in two months but but I think I think it does the spirit of ICDP so we we we expect to be always here for everything you need and to to to work together with you in the future and again any ideas that you can have to make this program better and better with time we appreciate and very important for us it's very important to get very good students and the best way to get good students is to have former students to spread the word about how important ICDP diploma has been for you so please spread the word as much as you can try to convince or to to encourage your friends and colleagues and fellow students from your countries or any other place to apply to our programs and maybe part of our family so I think all of you for this experience here has been as enriched very rich for you but it has been also very rich for us we and we all learn all the time from each other and may wish you the best in the rest of your career thank you very much so we're not just quite finished because there's some refreshments but we order them for at 5 p.m so in the meantime there may be some other volunteers who haven't been asked to talk and they want to spontaneously say something so take a joke or say something about the experience here if not if not we can start a photo session that which is usually very complicated because we want everybody in the room to come here and somehow we get together all of us here and Roberto will have a big challenge probably he will be floating in the air to try to get all of us here so probably we can try to start doing this and I know for a fact that it will take us several minutes so please all of you come here and we'll try to to get together to have a nice photograph to remember this day thank you