Blas Alascio
Argentine Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnica-Centro Atomico Bariloche
Candidate for International Councillor
Biographical Summary
Blas Alascio graduated at the University of Tucumán, Argentina in 1962 and obtained his Ph. D. in physics from the same University in 1964 after successive scholarships at the Instituto de Física in Bariloche and the University of California (Berkeley).
In 1964, he joined the Argentine Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, working at the Centro Atomico Bariloche, where he led the Solid State Theory group from its beginning in 1965. Later, he acted as Head of the Basic Research Department of the same Institution from 1982 to 1984 and from 1986 to 1995.
He was simultaneously (1966 to 2007) full professor at the Physics Institute (later Instituto Balseiro) in Bariloche where he taught quantum mechanics, statistical physics and condensed matter physics. He has also been a visiting professor at the Universidad de Cordoba, Argentina, and at the University Louis Pasteur, Grenoble, France.
His main research interest is in Solid State Physics, from transport in metals and insulators to valence fluctuations and highly correlated systems including, lately, magnetism in manganites. He has been an associate member of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy from 1970 to 1980 and a visiting scientist at the same Centre (1984-1985). During Abdus Salam´s Directorship of the Centre, Blas Alascio has integrated several Committees concerning the international activities of the ICTP, and has also been a Member of the Committee for Evaluation and Projection of the ICTP presided by Prof. L. Matheus (1978). He has been involved as chairman, organizer, or scientific advisor for more than twenty International, regional or national conferences.
He has also been a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Centre for Condensed Matter Physics in Brasilia from its creation in 1988 to 2007. The Brasilia Centre was created by the University of Brasilia to increase the exchange of scientific knowledge between Brazil and the international community, especially with the Latin American community.
He has also been cofounder and member of the Advisory Committee of the Balseiro Foundation in Bariloche, Argentina from 1991 to the present and president of the Committee from 1991 to 1996. The Balseiro Foundation is an Institution devoted to the support of research in science and technology and its transfer to society.
He received the 1982-1983 "Teófilo Isnardi" prize from the Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Argentina, and has been a Fellow of the American Physical Society since 1998.
Candidate's Statement
I am pleased and honoured to be nominated to stand for election as the International Councillor of the American Physical Society. Since international science cooperation has been a constant part of my professional life I very much welcome such nomination.
The APS is among the largest and most powerful physical societies of the world, as such, it has a responsibility in the development of the physical sciences which extends beyond its national limits. This responsibility is explicitly recognized in one of the four points of the Society vision:
“Cooperate with international physics societies to promote physics, to support physicists worldwide and to foster international collaboration”.
Physics is a culture in itself with its own language, set of values and symbols common to scientists all over the world. It is an instrument to foster collaboration and friendship between physicists of all nations.
As a member of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste for more than ten years and of Scientific Committee of the International Centre for Condensed Matter Physics in Brasilia since its creation and for almost twenty years, I have had vast opportunity to promote exchange of ideas and knowledge with colleagues from different parts of the world, especially those of developing nations. Furthermore, I have been pioneer, promoter, organizer and member of the scientific committee of several of the Latin American periodic conferences. These activities have been a very enjoyable part of my profession.
If elected, I plan to take advantage of this experience to foster and increase the actions of the APS regarding international cooperation, especially with the developing nations. With a view to the future, inspired in the early ICTP years, these actions should be pointed mainly to promising young scientists of the world.
