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Maldacena Shares 2008 Dirac Medal

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) has awarded the 2008 Dirac Medal to Juan Maldacena, Professor in the School of Natural Sciences; Joseph Polchinski of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California at Santa Barbara; and Cumrun Vafa of Harvard University (Joint Member, School of Mathematics and School of Natural Sciences, 1994) for their fundamental contributions to superstring theory.  The Dirac Medal, established in 1985, is one of the world's most prestigious prizes in physics. Recipients receive a cash award and medal, and they also present a lecture at the ICTP in Trieste, Italy, at an official ceremony. 

Previous Dirac Medal winners associated with the Institute include Director Peter Goddard (1997), Faculty members Stephen L. Adler (1998) and Edward Witten (1985), and former Faculty members Frank Wilczek (1994) and Tullio Regge (1996).  Curtis G. Callan (2004), a former Member who is currently a Trustee of the Institute, also received the prize.  The announcement of the Dirac Medal is made each year on August 8, the birth date of the 20th century physicist Paul A.M. Dirac, who won the Nobel Prize in 1933. Dirac, who was a Member in the School of Mathematics in 1934-35, 1946, 1947-48, 1958-59, and 1962-63, was a close associate and friend of ICTP from the Centre's first days in the early 1960s until his death in 1984.


Clumps and Streams in the Local Dark Matter Distribution

Nature has published "Clumps and Streams in the Local Dark Matter Distribution," authored by Jürg Diemand of the University of California-Santa Cruz; Michael Kuhlen, Astrophysics Member in the School of Natural Sciences (2006-09); Piero Madau and Marcel Zemp, UC-Santa Cruz; and Ben Moore, Doug Potter and Joachim Stadel of the University of Zurich.  The article appeared in the August 7, 2008 issue. 

In the standard model of cosmology, cold dark matter structures form and grow through the merging of smaller units. Numerical simulations of this process show that such merging is incomplete, and many clumps of gravitationally bound dark matter orbit within their hosts.  In their paper, the group reports a simulation that resolves this substructure even in the innermost region of a galaxy-scale halo like the one harboring our own Milky Way galaxy. A visualization of this simulation may be seen at http://www.ucolick.org/~diemand/vl.  More of Kuhlen's work is featured in the Summer 2008 issue of The Institute Letter.


Science Initiative Group Launches RISE to Strengthen African Higher Education

The Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE), initially supported by a $3.3 million grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to the Science Initiative Group (SIG) at the Institute for Advanced Study, aims to strengthen higher education in the sciences and engineering by increasing the population of skilled scientists and engineers teaching in Africa’s universities. In September, SIG received an additional $1.6 million in funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York to expand the initiative.  In July, RISE awarded its first grants, each worth $800,000 over two and a half years, to three networks of sub-Saharan universities. Now, two additional collaboratives will receive similar grants.  SIG is leading the RISE initiative in consultation with African partners including the Nairobi, Kenya-based African Academy of Sciences (AAS), the initiative’s co-administrator.

“The RISE approach will help fortify and consolidate the community of researchers,” said SIG chair Phillip Griffiths. “By establishing knowledge networks in select fields of science, RISE will help combat the isolation that so often plagues researchers in Africa. With increased contact and cooperation, both instructors and students will profit immensely.”

To see a press release on the original story, click here.  For more information about the latest grants, click here.