Diploma Memories

For hundreds of Diploma alumni, Concetta Mosca, the Postgraduate Diploma Programme's first secretary, is more than an ICTP staff member. Friend, surrogate mother, problem solver: these are all words that former Diploma students have used to describe the woman who greeted them when they first arrived for the intense study programme, organised pizza outings and various parties during each year for them, or helped them navigate the challenges of settling into a temporary life in Trieste.

Now retired, Ms. Mosca maintains active ties with ICTP and many of the former students whose stay at ICTP coincided with her term as Diploma secretary; she is looking forward to seeing many of them again at the upcoming Diploma 30th Anniversary. Friendly, outgoing and cheerful, Concetta's appearance has changed little from the images of her with Diploma students taken decades ago. During a recent visit to the Trieste campus, she recalled the highlights of her Diploma years while seated on the terrace of the Leonardo Building sipping a macchiato, now and then interrupting her recollections to greet former colleagues.

Her history with ICTP spans nearly the entire life of the Centre itself. She arrived in the early 1970s, an American with Italian grandparents, newly wed to an Italian she met while studying languages in Rome. Her husband's work brought the young couple to Trieste, where she responded to a job advertised in a newspaper for a multilingual secretary at ICTP. She interviewed and was offered a short-term contract on the spot. Thus began her decades-long affiliation with the Centre.

Concetta's work with the Diploma Programme began In January 1991, when ICTP scientists Yu Lu and Seif Randjbar-Daemi invited Ms. Mosca to be the secretary of a year-long pilot project to train postgraduate students from developing countries for PhD studies. The Diploma Programme officially launched in September of that year with 23 students pursuing studies in high energy and condensed matter physics. The so-called pilot project evolved to become one of ICTP's most important training programmes; now, as it celebrates its 30th anniversary, the Diploma Programme has educated more than 1000 aspiring physicists and mathematicians from disadvantaged countries, the majority of whom have built on their foundational ICTP studies to earn masters and PhD degrees and then share that knowledge with young scientists in their home countries.

While the numbers speak of the educational success of the programme, it was Ms. Mosca who, from those early days until her retirement in 2002, provided the moral support the students needed to endure the year of intense study and cultural change. "I told those first-year students, you're going to get the best and the worst of the programme, because all of us are new: the lecturers, the organizers, and you, the students. If you have any problems at all that are non-scientific, you come to me. If the problems are scientific, you go to the lecturers or to [ICTP physicist] Faheem Hussain," she said, adding that Hussain was like a father figure to the students.

Over the years, Concetta witnessed the profound transformation the students undergo during their Diploma studies. "At the beginning, I would say they were very wary of being with students from all different countries that were politically and racially different from theirs. But mostly they grew and became friends," she recalls. "I always told them, look, you're all from different countries, you might be from different ethnic groups, but you'll find that if you get to know each other you have so many more things in common than un-common, so don't let politics, religion, ethnicity get in your way, get to know each other, and then decide who you can be friendly with. You might find that you're friends with this person because you like the same movies, or that person because they study the way you study."

She continues, "They grew, scientifically, a lot. They were all quite frightened at the beginning, especially of certain lecturers that they thought were tough, but I would say to them, don't worry about that, if you have a problem go speak to the lecturer or go to Faheem, and it would work out."

The upcoming Diploma reunion will not only re-unite past students, but also the 'family' of ICTP alumni and staff. Nurtured by their new knowledge and Concetta's support, many in the family have gone on to become university professors, government ministers or leaders in the private sector. Like a proud parent or a long-lost friend, Concetta reflected on what she would say to the former students: "I remember you all fondly and I wish you well in all of your endeavors."

Related links:

See ICTP's photo collection of Diploma graduates over the years.

The Diploma 30th Anniversary takes place from 23 to 25 August. See the website for more details.