Several scientists closely associated with ICTP have been honoured with prestigious scientific awards. Alan Guth, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), and Andrei Linde, Stanford University, have won the Peter Gruber Foundation's Cosmology Prize 2004 for their core contributions to the theory of cosmic inflation. They will receive US$100,000 each. Guth and Linde, co-recipients of the Dirac Medal in 2002, have visited the Centre on numerous occasions. See "Universal Inflation," News from ICTP, Summer 2003. Simon Levin, who has participated in ICTP courses on mathematical ecology since the mid 1980s, has been awarded The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences A.H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences 2004 for his insights into the effect of scale on ecosystems. The prize includes a cheque for US$150,000. See "When Math Meets Ecology," News from ICTP, Spring 2000. Herwig Schopper, former director general, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), and currently president of the International Centre for Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME), has been awarded UNESCO's Albert Einstein Gold Medal for his major contributions to international scientific cooperation. ICTP has organized training courses under the umbrella of the SESAME project since 2000. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Middle East's first synchrotron light facility took place in Jordan in January 2003. See "Two Steps Closer," News from ICTP, Autumn 2002.