ICTP Associates

Elizabeth Gasparim is a mathematician carrying out research in geometry, who has been an ICTP senior associate since January 2024. In the past, she was a junior associate and also a Simons associate. She is currently a professor at the Catholic University of the North, in Antofagasta, Chile. Her research interests are in algebraic and symplectic geometry and in mathematical physics.

The beginning of Gasparim’s relationship with ICTP dates back to 1993, when she was a PhD student in mathematics at The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque and attended a two-week event at the Centre. “When I found out that there was a conference on a topic that I was interested in – it must have been on moduli spaces, but I don't remember the title – I immediately applied for it, like someone who plays the lottery and has no idea who would get the prize. It turns out that I was accepted and spent two amazing weeks at ICTP. It was wonderful,” Gasparim says.

Before spending time at ICTP, Gasparim had felt quite isolated in her research. “The library of the university where I did my Ph.D. had few mathematics books, some graduate courses I would have liked to take were missing, and I only met a few times with my supervisor. The support for my graduate studies came from teaching classes, which took time away from my studies. In particular, I had to teach classes every day during the summer period. I felt isolated in the sense that there were not enough resources, so by the end of my PhD I hadn’t learnt much,” she explains.

After only a couple of months I had learnt more at ICTP than I had during all of my graduate studies.

Things changed when she arrived at ICTP after her PhD. The Centre had made such a strong impression on her that she decided to apply to spend one year as a visiting researcher, and was accepted. “It was right away like a completely different planet from the one I knew. It was at ICTP that I first really started learning how to do research. Having the opportunity to discuss with many other researchers helped me significantly, and after only a couple of months I had learnt more at ICTP than I had during all of my graduate studies,” Gasparim explains.

After that first experience, her career developed quite quickly. Her visit to ICTP finished earlier than expected because in the meantime she was offered a position as an associate professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco, in Brazil. Being a woman from a small university in a developing country has not always been easy. “It has always come easily to me to find counter-examples to what I read and what I am told. Many times, when I tried to raise a question, or point out an error in a seminar talk, I was ignored, but I would not give up.  If I was given the opportunity to explain my reasoning, then I was able to prove that I was correct, but the opportunity to be heard was not always there. Soon I found out that what could made the difference was to convince some esteemed guy in mathematics. Then, when a man explained why I was right, anyone else believed me,” Gasparim explains.

Thanks to her tireless curiosity and her fearless capacity to ask questions, Gasparim got herself through an exciting career and made countless interesting encounters with mathematicians from all over the world. During her PhD studies for example, she was urged to finish her PhD earlier than expected, because of the great impression she had made on the famous mathematician and Abel Prize laureate Dennis Sullivan, who in the occasion of a visit to New Mexico, during his seminar talk, thanked her for all the interesting things he had learnt during their conversation, thus convincing anyone else that she was a capable mathematician.

At ICTP, I could find scientists doing both mathematics and physics at a very high level, with whom I could discuss at any moment at ease, given the very friendly environment of ICTP.

After her first time as a visitor at ICTP, Gasparim returned on several other occasions through the Centre’s Associates Programme, which was created by ICTP founder and Nobel laureate Abdus Salam to help researchers in developing countries to form an international research network that would help break the solitude they often feel and thus fight the brain drain from those countries. Before obtaining her current associateship, Gasparim held the positions of junior associate, later a Simons associate, and was also the coordinator of a Network in Geometry and Physics supported by the Office of External Activities of ICTP.

Commenting on her experience as an ICTP Associate, Gasparim explains: “The Associates Programme has given me the possibility to visit the Centre regularly and meet with many other researchers, some have become my collaborators, and several have invited me to give talks in their research institutes around the world. At ICTP, I could find scientists doing both mathematics and physics at a very high level, with whom I could discuss at any moment at ease, given the very friendly environment of ICTP.”

Being a Simons associate also gave me the opportunity to share the positive experience of visiting ICTP with some of my graduate students.

“Being a Simons associate also gave me the opportunity to share the positive experience of visiting ICTP with some of my graduate students. The Simons Associateship allows researchers to invite younger scientists and thus two of my students had the chance to spend one month at ICTP. Working in a small university in Chile means that our research group is very small and that the next geometer lives a two-hour flight away. There are not many opportunities to discuss and exchange ideas outside of our group, especially for PhD students, who often do not have the funding to travel. Spending some time at ICTP was a great opportunity for them, and in the space of one month I could clearly see how much they matured as mathematicians,” Gasparim continues.

Having been to ICTP many times, Gasparim is also well acquainted with ICTP housing options, that are part of any visitor’s experience at the Centre. “I have tried both the Adriatico and the Galileo Guest Houses. A few times I also stayed in the city centre, but my favourite is definitely the Adriatico, especially the rooms with a view of the sea. The landscape is fantastically beautiful and inspiring, making it much easier to have good ideas,” she continues.

“The Adriatico Guest House is also a place where you can meet other researchers from different disciplines, who come from all over the world. The variety of cultures and the freedom of expressing diverse ideas bring much creativity, the essential ingredient for the development of science,” Gasparim concludes.