To celebrate the 40th anniversary of ICTP, Highlights will periodically include a description of a seminal event in the Centre's history.
14 March 1961 ­ The Italian government officially nominates Trieste as Italy's candidate to host the IAEA's much-discussed proposal for an international centre for theoretical physics.
21-22 March 1961 ­ Sterling Cole, IAEA director general, convenes a panel of experts at the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna to discuss the feasibility of creating the proposed centre. The 16-member panel, which includes Aage Bohr (Nobel Laureate for Physics 1975), strongly recommends the creation of such a centre. Paolo Budinich, who later serves as ICTP's deputy director (1964-1978), is an observer to the panel.