As a follow-up to an agreement signed last year between ICTP and the Horia Hulubei Foundation of Romania, ICTP Director Katepalli Sreenivasan recently visited a number of prominent scientific institutions in Romania to lay the foundation for a planned ICTP branch in that country.  ICTP-Romania will be a scientific centre that will foster the growth of advanced studies and research in physics and related sciences, to provide an international forum and excellent research facilities for the exchange of information and ideas at the international level. ICTP will assist this new centre in its evolution.

Professor Sreenivasan visited the following Romanian institutions during his visit: Horia Hulubei Foundation; Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Education, Research and Youth; National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics; National Institute of Materials Physics; National Institute of Research and Development for Earth Physics; Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest; and the Romanian Academy. Also included in the visit was the UNESCO office in Bucharest called the European Centre for Higher Education.

While in Romania, Professor Sreenivasan was awarded an honorary degree by the Romanian Academy. His full remarks on this occasion are here. The award follows closely an earlier honorary degree conferred on him by the University of Hyderabad; read his related remarks here.