IUPAP celebrates its centennial

2022 is an important year for IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics), the organization representing worldwide the global community of physicists. The Union, which promotes the worldwide development of physics and aims at solving problems of concern to humanity, was founded 100 years ago, and to celebrate its centennial, it will hold an international symposium in July along with several other satellite events over the year. The IUPAP Centenary Symposium will take place at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, from 11 to 13 July and will host world-renowned scientists, with panels addressing key issues related to the development of physics, the promotion and role of physics research in the world, and science policies.

Among the keynote speakers who have already confirmed their attendance in person at the symposium are Nobel Prize laureates Takaaki Kajita and William Phillips. Other confirmed guests include Laura Greene, a member of US President Joe Biden's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and other world-renowned scientists such as Tim Palmer of the University of Oxford, who will deliver a speech on climate change. The full programme of the event is available here. The deadline to register is June 1st, see the IUPAP Centenary website for more information about the event.

The conference is one of the events of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development promoted by UNESCO, which will start officially in July 2022. Conference panels will cover main research topics in physics, ranging from climate change to astroparticle physics, as well as some aspects of science policy such as the promotion of female and other underrepresented groups in science, scientific careers, and the development of science in developing and recently developed economies.

The conference will also be an opportunity to welcome Ukraine as a new member of the Union. The decision to admit the country with an accelerated procedure stems from the Union's desire to send a strong signal of support to the war-torn country, a war that has not spared its scientific institutions and the people who work there. Plasma physicist Anatoly Zagorodny, President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, has agreed to address online the participants of the Centennial event.

Other activities are expected to be organized along the year in various parts of the world. Updates and news regarding the centennial celebrations will be available on the IUPAP website.