ICTP Connections: India

During its more than 50-year history, ICTP has built strong connections with thousands of scientists, especially those in disadvantaged countries. In order to capture its far-reaching impact throughout the developing world, ICTP commissioned Trieste filmmaker Nicole Leghissa to make a documentary about these connections.

Leghissa spent two months in 2014 travelling around the world to explore how the lives of scientists have been positively impacted by ICTP, and how they in turn are using their experiences to build scientific capacity in their home countries. The resulting documentary, "From Theory to Reality", highlights the success stories of six scientists in six countries.

We are revisiting these stories because they are a reminder that ICTP's impact on scientific research in the developing world remains as relevant as ever.

Even during the uncertainty of the current global pandemic, ICTP is working hard to help scientists around the world to feel less isolated and go on with their research with access to free resources and online seminars. These ICTP success stories can inspire researchers and scientists and alleviate isolation during these difficult times.

We have created separate features for each of the six scientists who appear in the documentary. Here, we highlight Ashoke Sen, one of the world’s best-known physicists to work in the field of string theory.

He is a professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) in Allahabad, India, and has a long affiliation with ICTP, having won the centre's ICTP Prize in 1989 and Dirac Medal in 2014. He has also been a distinguished staff associate in the HECAP section and has served on ICTP's Scientific Council.

Here you can watch the complete 2014 Dirac Medal Award Ceremony where Professor Sen gave a talk, along with his fellow awardees Andrew Strominger and Gabriele Veneziano. Here you can also watch the three scientists discussing about science at “The Dirac Roundtable” with ICTP’s Director Atish Dabholkar.