Iran's Ministry of Culture and Higher Education has opened an International Scientific Meetings Office (ISMO). The office represents in part the outgrowth of a memorandum of agreement that the ministry signed with ICTP in December 1998. ISMO's main responsibility will be to organize international and regional scientific research and training activities in the basic and applied sciences. Such activities will range from two- or three-day workshops to six-week schools. The office is located in the Department of Physics at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. ISMO's day-to-day responsibilities will be directed by Reza Mansouri, professor of physics at the university, while the institute's broad direction will be approved by a scientific committee. The following research topics are under consideration for next year: dynamical systems and turbulence; electrostatics and its applications; fiber optics and optical devices; and training for writing proposals to international scientific centres. Additional information about ISMO may be obtained via e-mail: ismo@physics.sharif.ac.ir, or phone/fax: +98 21 6022711.