Affiliation Ceremony

The official Affiliation Ceremony to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was held on September 9^th at the ELETTRA Synchrotron Light Laboratory.

The ceremony seals the outstanding acknowledgement of the ELETTRA Laboratory as collaborating centre to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which took place in April 2005.

During the event, Werner Burkart, deputy director of the Vienna Agency, explained the reasons why ELETTRA was included in the limited group of affiliated research centres. The close working relationship built throughout the past years, is now defined by the award of an affiliation plate with the IAEA logo and the mention of collaborating centre.

The plate was placed at the entrance of the ELETTRA main building and was uncovered at the closing of the ceremony in the presence of Carlo Rizzuto, president of Sincrotrone Trieste, Alfonso Franciosi, Sincrotrone Trieste Chief Executive Officer, Roberto Cosolini region research councellor, Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, Director of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Stefano Fantoni, Director of SISSA, Maria Cristina Pedicchio, President of AREA, the directors of the Laboratory and the heads of the scientific bodies that represent Trieste.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is an autonomous agency founded on July 29^th, 1957 with the aim of promoting the pacific use of nuclear energy and to prevent its use for military purpose.

The IAEA home office is in Vienna, with branch connection offices in Toronto/Canada, Geneva/Switzerland, New York/U.S.A. and Tokyo/Japan; research on behalf of IAEA is conducted in the Trieste and Munich Laboratories.

The status of collaborating centre involves IAEA support in the realization of approved research and development programs and training activity in specific technological fields. The collaboration will be carried out in a three-year work plan.

The qualification of collaborating centre is not only a public acknowledgement of the work carried out by the Laboratory for the Agency; it can also be seen as an international estimate for its role in specific fields of research.

Thanks to the visibility of the training and research activities for researchers of developing countries, carried out by the ELETTRA Laboratory and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, the Agency decided to include ELETTRA among the first collaborating centres for the period 2005-2008.

The work programme, agreed by Werner Burkard and Massimo Altarelli, former Senior Scientific Director of ELETTRA, emphasizes the outstanding role of ELETTRA in the Agency's programs involving Accelerator Physics, Synchrotron Light and the Free Electron Lasers.