Giorgio Parisi, professor of physics at the University of Rome La Sapienza, will receive the 1999 Dirac Medal at a ceremony to be held at the ICTP Main Lecture Hall on 24 May. Parisi is being honoured for his contributions to physics that have spanned a broad range of topics, including elementary particles, phase transitions, string theory, and disordered systems. He also has worked at Columbia University, New York, USA, and at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques and Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France.